“Successfully. Like you tried it.”
“Yes. I tried it.”
“Jane…” Lucas stared blankly at his wife. “There are some really smart people in that room.”
Jane waited in silence, watching his face.
“Lucas, do you believe me?”
He paused and looked at her, his face almost a scowl. Finally he spoke. “This is about Emily.”
Jane’s mouth went dry.
“Tell me it isn’t, Jane. Tell me this isn’t about changing what happened for Emily.”
“I—”
“Jane! You aren’t God!”
“You’re telling me you don’t want her back?” she hissed.
“I’m telling you that isn’t our decision! Wasn’t our decision. Two years ago.”
“But what if it could be our decision? What if it could be our decision right now?”
Lucas stared at his wife for a full minute before leaving.
Chapter 64
MILO Personal Dictation: Lucas Whyse
MILO, open an email to Jane.
Dear Jane,
Thank you for letting me in on your secret. It definitely sounds like—
Erase that. Start over, MILO.
Jane,
I think that you are really playing with fire here, with NASA and maybe even with God. Is this really—
Wait. No. Ugh. Start over again.
Dear Jane,
I wish… I don’t really know where to begin. I know you spend every day still dreaming and imagining our daughter. I don’t know if it will always be like this. I don’t think there’s going to be a magic day sometime when this stops hurting.
But do you really believe the solution is to ‘science’ your way out of this? Do you really think we are walking towards healing and hope if this is the path we choose? Are we really living in faith if we are looking behind us and fighting? At what point have you crossed from loving grief into a sinful obsession—idolatry, even—of this idea of having her here?
I worry that there is no end to this. If we pursue this, let’s imagine the future. We’ve successfully done whatever it is you imagine will change the outcome of our pregnancy. But what if she gets sick then? Do we go back again? What if she’s fine, but Sebbie falls and breaks his leg. Do we go back? How do we determine when to let life progress and when to order a re-do? If we fail an experiment, do we try again, or do we press rewind?
And why just Emily? Why not save our parents in a few years? Why not JFK? Why not Lincoln? Why not Abel? I just… Either we…. Jane, either we accept God’s plan or we don’t. There just… I can’t…
But could you really do it anyway? The timeline alone would be prohibitive, wouldn’t it? I mean, even if you can replicate the results, by the time the technology could actually be used successfully, you’d what? Send yourself a message? We’d be like 80-year-old scientists working on this thing and then you’d tell your thirty-year-old self what happened and if it worked, suddenly… what? Everything changes? A Mirror-Mirror alternate timeline where I have bad facial hair? I mean, how would you do it? Embed something in the data that no one else would see? You’d have to… you’d almost have to—
MILO, scrap this, just delete the whole thing. The back-up of this recording session, too. They can’t see that we were talking about this. I’ll go talk to her.
Chapter 65
Three weeks later, Cheyenne had arranged for a couple people from Semotus to call Riddhi together. Jane and Ana had each spoken to her a few times, but this would give the group an opportunity to let her know her presence was missed.
Despite the lack of specialized medical services immediately available, Riddhi’s long-term prognosis was positive. Second-degree burns covering her neck, face, ears, arms, groin, and upper legs would require ongoing rehab, and a third-degree burn on her right arm had required reconstructive surgery. The superior protection of her goggles, gloves, and leather vest had been praised by every doctor who provided treatment.
“So, how’s PT going?” Cheyenne asked the monitor. Riddhi was still bandaged from plastic surgery repairs to her face and neck, but her eyes peeked through with their characteristic shine. She wore a soft lavender hat and a green hospital gown which revealed several dressings still present on her shoulders and arms.
“I only threatened to kill my therapist once today, so that’s a big improvement,” Riddhi replied with a half-smile.
“I’m sure she appreciated that,” Ana said over the group’s chuckles.
“So what’s happening in The Dome?” Riddhi asked. “You’re going to launch to space again soon, right?”
“Yes, on Thursday,” Jane answered.
“We’re using your larger capsule,” Bonnie added.
“Don’t blow it up, please,” Riddhi said. “It’s one thing if you blast my metal all over Antarctica, but if you blow it up in space, aliens could find it and build spaceships out of monkey metal, and I don’t want to be responsible for the destruction of the human race.”
“I think she’s bored, guys,” Hal interrupted. “Do you need more reading material? Or is that the problem? Are you reading your space romances again?”
“Don’t tell them about my dirty novels,” Riddhi chastised, as the group again began to chuckle.
“In all honesty, though, Riddhi,” Bonnie said, “there’s always a chance of catastrophic failure, but our first test was flawless. In fact, better than flawless, or faster.”
“Faster?”
“Yes, we bested our estimate,” Bonnie added.
“Great! Right? Jane? It’s great?” Riddhi asked, waving her hand weakly.
“What?” Jane said, looking up from her tablet. “Sorry, yes. Of course it’s great. Hey, listen, sweetie, I gotta run, sorry. Lucas is messaging me.”
“Good, I’m tired anyway. Bye,” Riddhi said as Jane left the room. “You guys go science your magic. I’m going to concentrate on growing some new skin.”
Ana tried to hide her sour face and waved. “Talk to you soon, Riddhi. We miss you!”
“Thanks. Bye for now.”
As the video shut off, the rest of the team filed out. When they were alone, Bonnie turned to Ana and pulled her aside.
“What’s up, Bonnie?” Ana asked as Bonnie gestured for her to sit.
“I read your thesis.”
“Oh?” Ana replied. “Thanks, I’m flattered you took the time.”
“It’s excellent work,” Bonnie said. “A creative concept that I think we should consider implementing in practice.”
“Are you serious?” Ana said, surprised.
“Have you presented this concept to Jane at all?” Bonnie asked.
“No, she’s been so busy, and it’s sort of far-fetched, ten-years-from-now kind of thinking.”
“Doesn’t have to be,” Bonnie replied. “Not with the speed they are advancing this technology. How about you pitch it to the Colonel and get some gears spinning over at NASA? I’ll schedule a call. I think there’s some huge promise in your idea.”
“Wow, really? Thanks, Bonnie,” Ana said, feeling enormously validated.
“How about tomorrow?” Bonnie suggested. “Then it’s off our plate so Thursday can be relaxing.”
“The day of the launch, relaxing? Good luck,” Ana said, smiling. “That’s headless chicken day in The Dome.”
Bonnie sighed but smiled. “I’m going to the chem lab to see if Lucas is on schedule with the new, larger capsule.”
“Last I heard the robots were still loading,” Ana said, tucking a pencil behind her ear.
“Oh, great, maybe the work will be stopped while they program the government’s equipment to play the bongos and do the limbo…” Bonnie mumbled as she walked out, making Ana chuckle.
After a pit stop for a granola bar, Bonnie looked around for Lucas in the Gem Lab.
“Where’s Dr. Whyse?” she asked a young man looking at something in a microscope.
“Monitoring the loading process, I think,” he
replied while pointing, “Check over there.”
Bonnie walked over to a waist-high, clear plastic box encasing the newly upgraded assembly robot. No longer a freestanding unit, there was now a tiny, precisely timed conveyor filled with the lined-up quartz crystals slowly ticking into the loading arms’ grasp. To the naked eye, the thousands of thin crystals looked like a smooth white coin. The robotic arms rhythmically dropped each in place to load the capsule, but because of how slight each was, the ‘coin’ never appeared to get any thinner.
“There you are, Lucas,” Bonnie said as he stood up from where he’d been squatting to observe. “How much longer?”
“Hey Bonnie,” he replied. “Twenty-four hours with no issues. Hopefully no more than forty-eight, barring any disasters.”
“Good. Plenty of time for excessive double checks.”
“Just how you like it,” Lucas said with a thumbs-up. The machine halted and the humming sound died, leaving the room feeling quiet.
“Excuse me, Dr. Whyse, robot just found an imperfection in one of the Fox crystals,” the tech at the control computer said.
“Ok, thanks,” he said. “Analyze the bad crystal and check the rest in its batch.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fox crystal?” Bonnie asked with eyebrows raised.
“The smaller ones that assist in the decel,” Lucas explained.
“Yes, but… you named it after Trevor?” she asked.
“It was his idea,” Lucas said, shrugging his shoulders.
“But you don’t exactly… get along. You could just call them the ‘smaller ones.’ They needed a name?”
“It was his idea,” Lucas repeated.
Bonnie wrinkled her forehead and sighed. “Whatever you like. By the way, have you read Dr. McDell’s thesis paper for her doctorate?”
Lucas shook his head.
“I like the concept she presents. Wondered if you could weigh in from your perspective on feasibility.”
“Sure, I’d be happy to. She has an idea for Split Horizon?”
“Yes,” Bonnie said, smiling. “I’ll ask her to email it to you this evening. You might like what you see.”
Chapter 66
“So how much bigger would it be?” Hal asked Ana early on Thursday morning as they prepped for a snow quad run. They needed to visually inspect the meteorological robots before the day’s launch.
“Bigger would what be?”
“The space capsule you wrote about,” he answered. “I mean, are we talking, I could climb inside, or are we talking, like two cats?”
Ana laughed. “Maybe a kitten? But there’s not really cargo space, that’s just where the gems are. The magnet cargo is microscopic.”
“Ahh…” Hal said, nodding. “So I guess, I can’t stow away and be a space cowboy ‘til next year.”
“They’ll never actually build it,” Ana smiled, shaking her head.
“You about ready?” Peter asked as he filled the gas tank on the second quad.
“Just waiting for Ian,” she replied. “He should be here in a few.” Now that Riddhi was stateside for her recovery, Ian was back at Semotus.
After a few minutes, Ian walked up, kissed Ana, commented on the cold, and shook hands with Hal and Peter. “I’m ready. Impress me!” he said.
Hal sat down and revved his quad’s engine as everyone pulled on their helmets and checked their comms.
“Let’s go then,” Peter said, starting up the other machine’s engine but not getting on. “You two want to ride together?”
“Nah, I told him we’d race, so without equipment this time, it’ll be a fair fight,” Ana said, hopping on behind Hal. “Hit it, buddy!”
Ian laughed and gestured for Peter to mount up so they could give chase.
An hour into their loop, Candace radioed out to Ana. Why is Candace calling? she thought, feeling her pulse speed up.
“Everything ok?” Ana asked.
“Yes, sorry, everything’s fine, I think,” Candace replied.
“Ok, good, so what’s up then?”
“Oddly enough, Edwards is on the line for you. Cheyenne, Jane, and Bonnie are all tied up prepping for tonight’s launch, and the phones ring into the closest office if no one answers in the console room. So here I am, playing your secretary.”
“Did he say what it was about?” Ana said, her already racing heart somehow still managing to speed up.
“He didn’t say, but he didn’t sound angry or anything,” Candace replied.
“Well, ok, I guess just put him through,” Ana said. “Did you tell him I was outside?”
“Yes,” Candace said. “Ok, here you go. I’ll tell Hal.”
There was a faint click, then her squeezed voice said, “Hello, this is Ana McDell?”
“Doctor, good, sorry for interrupting your schedule,” Edwards’ voice said. “I wanted to follow up on our conversation with Dr. Chapman the other day, and I have a team assembled right now discussing it, and I decided we’d just see if we could loop you in as well. Sorry for the spontaneity.”
“A team?” Ana repeated, feeling out of her league and wishing Jane was with her.
“Yes, hang on, I’m putting you on speaker phone.”
“Uh, right, ok,” Ana said. Hal walked over and gave her a questioning look, tapping his helmet. She nodded and gave him a weak thumbs up, raising her shoulders. Clicking on her tablet, she handed Ian the visual inspection list so the three men could continue working on this robot while she walked away.
“... to be talking with you today,” Ana heard as she refocused.
“I’m sorry, one more time, please?” she asked.
“I said we’re pleased to be talking with you today,” a man’s voice said. “We’re the strategic planning team assigned to Split Horizon.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ana said.
“We’re really impressed with this idea,” he continued. “Your thesis is obviously well thought out and crafted with first-hand knowledge of the project. ‘Nesting dolls’ as you called it – we think it will work.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” she said, raising her hands slightly as she tried to control her excited energy. “So, what can I do for you?”
“Have you reviewed the idea with Drs. Riddhi Bidell or Richard Chapman?”
“What personnel roster are you looking at, James?” Colonel Edwards suddenly interrupted. “Dr. Biddell’s not on active duty right now. Ana, have you asked any of the metallurgists if this could be done? Or Lucas?”
“Lucas is currently reading it, to my knowledge,” Ana replied.
Edwards said, “I’m no physicist, but your basic suggestion is that we kind of rack up smaller capsules inside each other, and as they expire, the outer one would shed like snakeskin and ignite the next jump.”
“That's the idea,” Ana said. “You could get a lot farther with multiple FTL jumps, and with the way the metal contracts, theoretically with perfect construction, it could be layered. You'd only need one set of gems inside. You could reuse the crystals, assuming perfect success and no cracks or defects, of course. I mean, it would require a lot of precision.”
“That's ok,” the Colonel said. “All the brains here say the theory seems sound. We want to investigate.”
“People think light speed would mean Star Trek and meeting aliens,” another voice said, “but our galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across. So we're not really getting that far in terms of all the space out there with a single FTL jump of limited distance.”
“Right,” Ana agreed. “So, what’s next?”
“We'd like to assign you a separate research team and make this your off-season task,” Edwards said. “What do you think?”
“I’d welcome that, sir,” she said, her smile so big it threatened to jump off her face. “I’m game.”
“Good.”
“Well, if we’re done,” Ana said. “I’m going to go fix my robots.”
“That's not a real job,” the Colonel said with a low whistle.
“That's the dream of every kid who's ever touched a Lego.”
“Except I can't feel my extremities.”
“Fair point,” the Colonel laughed. “Anything else, guys?”
“No,” the other voice replied. “We have eight weeks 'til you're home, so we'll prep for this while you just focus on finishing your season.”
“Will do. Four healthy robots, coming right up.”
Chapter 67
“So who won the race?” Lucas asked when the expedition returned.
“We did,” all four people answered at once, making Lucas laugh. With the launch of the larger capsule just two hours away, everyone inside The Dome was doing last-minute prep.
“As long as the weather will be tracked appropriately, I will grant you all equal bragging rights,” he said.
Candace walked up with four mugs of coffee, trailed by her two pupils. “Who needs a warm up?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” Ana said as the beverages were distributed. “How's your day, sweetie?” she asked Dám.
“So boring,” Dám said. “No offense, Candace, but science sucks no matter how you spin it.”
“Not the best place to say that, young lady,” her father Ian teased. “You're literally surrounded by scientists.”
“Well, you're all boring then,” she said with a mischievous smirk.
“How about you, Sebbie?” Hal asked.
“I've just been reading, you know, like books and stuff,” the boy replied. He heaved a heavy sigh, then added, “I have to copy my sentences before I can come to the launch.”
Candace rolled her eyes lovingly and hinted that it was time to return to the school room. Sebastian gave a pleading look to all the adults, but no one intervened so he followed Candace back down the hallway, dragging his feet.
“Can I get some cocoa, Dad?” Dám asked.
“Ok by me,” Ian replied. “Candace, I'll walk her back in a few minutes and drill in some science!”
“Sounds fine, we'll be there waiting,” Candace waved.
“Get me one, too, Dám!” Sebbie called.
Bonnie turned the corner at the other end of the hallway.
“What did I miss?” she said in a slightly irritated voice when she saw the small crowd.
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