by Jack L Knapp
The Apache warrior reached for his hatchet. Seeing this, the others drew their knives, ready for whatever threatened. They were Apache, and war was their life.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ray formed his bubble and drifted up, enjoying the rising heat from the fire. It felt good; the air above the mountain was cold, and the bubble allowed the warmth to enter but kept the smoke out. Far to the west, Mount Taylor loomed; the ancient volcano was taller than any other peak in the vicinity. A tiny spark glowed at the summit.
Libby should be clear of the fire by now, but Ray waited a moment longer to be sure. Two bubbles, trying to occupy the same space at the same time? It might not be possible, but it was better not to take chances. Finally, judging the space by the fire on Mount Taylor would be clear, he teleported west.
Arriving, he found that the fire had burned out; only ashes remained where it had been. Anyway, he remembered where wood was to be found down the slope; Ray gathered enough for a large fire and levitated back, bringing the wood with him. He piled the wood in place, then lit it. He warmed himself as the flames grew, then moved back as the fire grew hotter. Experience using pyrokinetics helped; the whole process took less than five minutes.
Libby would have teleported east by now, so Ray judged it was safe to attempt contact. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he sensed her call.
#
T watched the stock market carefully, judging when the stocks he’d bought were as high as he thought they would go. They hadn’t stopped rising yet, though they’d slowed down. At any rate, he was out of time. He contacted his broker and ordered the man to liquidate his investment.
“See here, Mr. Tagliaferro, the market offers a number of excellent opportunities just now. Your banking investments might be ready for a correction, but railroads are healthy and quite profitable. Wouldn’t you like me to transfer your investment to one of the railroad companies? If transportation isn’t to your liking, there are opportunities in real estate as well as the new technology companies. Edison’s company...well, he’s Edison, you know. You can’t lose by investing in Edison.”
“No, I’ll be leaving town soon. I’m afraid this ends our association. Here’s where I want you to deposit the funds.” T handed the man a paper listing information regarding a bank account.
“Certainly, sir, if that’s your wish. I’ll send a messenger with the paperwork to your bank as soon as I’ve completed the trades. You’ve done very well, sir, very well indeed. I’ll try to get the transfer finished before close of business today; it appears that a storm is brewing. Fortunately, it’s too late in the year for a real nor’easter.”
T nodded. “Heavy clouds are indeed moving in. It’s a shame we don’t know ahead of time when storms are likely to strike.”
“Ah, but we frequently do, sir. We have the telegraph, you know, and operators often let their counterparts know. It’s one of the advantages of having a contact in the telegraph office; a messenger arrived two hours ago to let me know that a bad storm was on its way. I sold a few shares of my shipping stocks just in case. No reason to take unnecessary chances, you see. We’re very prudent with our investments, and paying the telegraph operator a small stipend has proven to be a very good investment!”
T smiled back at the man and took his leave. The wait was short, and he settled in as the train pulled away on its way to Long Island. Hopefully, the storm would hold off long enough for Tesla to finish his test. Lightning flashed far away to the southeast, but if there was thunder the sound was hidden within the noise made by the train. The thunder would need to be quite close to be heard over the rattles, squeak of steel wheels against steel rails, and the chuff-chuff of the steam engine. The first drops of rain spattered against the windows, but perhaps the storm hadn’t reached Wardenclyffe yet.
Tesla pressed the work force on, despite the light rain. It took a moment for him to notice T when he arrived.
“Ah, Tom! I’m glad you’re here. We’re almost ready. I didn’t want to wait much longer in any case. The men are firing up the dynamo now. It will take a little time to build up enough steam pressure, but we should have power shortly.”
“Nikola, you’re going ahead with the test? There’s a storm coming.”
“Tom, there’s no reason why my transmitter should not work just as well today as it would in the most pleasant of spring days. This needs to be proved, of course, but we have the perfect opportunity to do that. Otherwise, I might have had to wait for weeks for stormy weather before I could test the transmitter.”
T glanced southeast. Out at sea, the flashes appeared to be happening more often. The distant mutter of thunder revealed that the storm front was heading for the coast.
“Nikola, I hope you’re right. You don’t plan on having anyone on your tower when you power it up, do you?”
“No, no, Tom, the men are already inside the laboratory. The steam plant gives off considerable heat and the workers are inside warming themselves. I’ll be going in too, but only for a moment. I want to operate the switches myself, you see. The transmitter is the crowning achievement of my life. It will bring peace to the world, communications to all men everywhere, and power available instantly without need for wires or steam plants. We can build additional dynamo systems and install them wherever rivers flow, then direct the power to the atmosphere by additional transmission towers. The power provided in this way will electrify the world.”
“You don’t have anyone in the tunnels either, do you?”
“No, as I said they’re all in the laboratory complex. Some may wish to observe the display when I power up the transmitter, and I shall come outside myself to do that. We shall make lightning, Tom, lightning of the sort that will help mankind rather than the natural instrument of destruction.”
“I need to mention something before I forget, Nikola. You know I’ll be leaving after the test is complete, and you may recall that I asked you to recommend an investment broker. I bought stocks that have done very well, and a short time I ago I ordered them sold. I have no need for the money and the best thing I could do with it was transfer it to your account. I provided the bank information, and as soon as the messenger arrives at your bank with the information the funds will be available for your use.”
“Tom! I had no idea...I thank you, of course, but cannot I offer you a share of my intellectual rights? I have a number of inventions which I’ll patent when they’re ready. You could become quite wealthy from such shares.”
“No, you hold onto those, Nikola. I have my mining interests, and there’s the ranch after the mines are exhausted.”
“You are too generous, Tom. When you go...you’re won’t be taking the train, will you?”
“No, Nikola, I’m going ahead with my search. A young girl is lost, separated from family and friends, and I can’t leave her there. You know where I’ll be going.”
“Yes, I suppose I do. It’s difficult to accept, but I hope you stay safe. I’ve come to value your friendship, Tom. I have few friends, you know, and most of them don’t understand my work. You have unusual insight.”
T almost grinned. Nikola, if you only knew! The electric motors, the alternating-current power systems, even the florescent lights, those things were not things of wonder in my time but things taken for granted!
“If you’ll excuse me, Tom, I judge from the sounds that the steam plant has the necessary pressure. I’ll confirm that with the gauges, of course, but I’ll begin the test as soon as the dynamo reaches full speed. You should have a very good view from here, and when everything is going well inside I’ll join you. We can watch the tower as it builds up enough charge to radiate power to the atmosphere. I must warn you, we may also experience some mild shaking; the tower grips the Earth as it builds the potential between the upper air and the ground.”
“I’ll expect that, Nikola.”
#
#
T watched the clouds and kept an eye on the tower. The steam plant hissed in the background and a clanking noise announced that the reciprocating shaft was delivering power to the dynamo. A crackling noise came from the upright element inside the tower’s frame, accompanying the first faint glow surrounding the antenna high above.
The storm hit with full force just as Tesla came outside. He glanced up at the antenna and nodded in satisfaction. “The transmitter takes time to gain the initial charge, Tom. It will stabilize when that happens and the power transfer will begin. The process will go faster now.”
“Aren’t you worried about the storm? The lightning bolts are already hitting the ground just across Long Island Sound.”
“I expect the tower to dissipate the storm’s energy, Tom. In fact, the discharges may add to the transmitter’s power.”
“Nikola, are you certain? Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod controls natural discharges, but it does so by directing the electrical charge to the ground. Your transmitter is also grounded, but won’t the storm overload the system? Isn’t it likely to burn out the coils?”
“They’ll be fully energized before the lightning gets here, Tom. We’re perfectly safe, standing where we are. The tower will protect us.”
T nodded, keeping his doubts to himself. Even geniuses have their off days. Tesla, after all, had managed to shut down the power supply for Colorado Springs using an earlier version of his transmitter.
Above them, the glow strengthened. The first tiny discharges spat from the antenna, crackling angrily before dissipating in the humid air. Tesla was clearly enthralled by the spectacle, smiling as the bolts grew stronger.
The wind had strengthened with the arrival of the storm, and fat raindrops now spattered against the lab building. Could Tesla be right? Would the tower incorporate the charges building up between the clouds and the ground and add them to the radiated energy?
The heavy rain continued. It built puddles wherever there was a low spot. Within minutes, the puddles spread. If Tesla noticed, he gave no sign. The water lapped at the entrance to the tunnel system below the tower.
T watched the miniature waterfall as it cascaded down the stairs. Far below, Tesla’s earthing tunnels provided a temporary space to hold the water. It spread through the tunnels, wetting the heavy beams that Tesla’s workmen had installed.
The angry pops from the tower became loud booms, the sounds rolling away downwind. Huge, yellow-white flares discharged from the tower’s antenna. Where there had been earlier hisses as raindrops struck the charged surface, those sounds had vanished.
Tesla finally looked around. “Tom, has there been flooding?”
“Yes, I saw water wash down the stairway. Did you account for water in your earthing system?”
“No, I...” Tesla’s explanation was cut off by a rumble. The ground shook. The shaking paused for a moment, then came again, stronger.
Far above, the bulbous antenna glowed blue, lighting the ground around Wardenclyffe. The light brightened even as T watched. A great bolt of lightning flashed out, then the bolts stopped. The corona around the antenna grew ever brighter, the bolts no longer dissipating the charge.
T realized that something had gone badly wrong; the earlier demonstration he’d seen had resulted in stability as the coil reached it’s maximum charge, then that equilibrium had failed when Tesla’s lamp shattered. Something similar seemed to be happening here. What if Tesla had made a mistake? What if the transmitter wasn’t able to transfer all the built up power, including whatever it absorbed from the storm, to the atmosphere?
Alarmed, T formed his bubble. Would it be enough to protect him, maybe even protect Tesla? Frantically he expanded his bubble.
The chugging power plant died as the overheated dynamo’s windings melted and the bearings seized up. A giant discharge lanced from the antenna and struck T’s bubble, surrounding it with a glowing corona.
When the glow faded, the bubble and T were gone.
Nikola Tesla lay on the ground by the laboratory’s entrance, curled into a ball. Workers found him when they came out to report that the tower’s power plant was ruined.
“It’s Mr. Tesla. Is he alive?”
Two of the workers picked him up, one holding his shoulders, the other his feet. They carried him into the laboratory and laid him on the floor.
“He’s alive, and I think he’s conscious. His eyes are moving.”
“What’s wrong with him, then? Why isn’t he saying anything? Why doesn’t he sit up?”
“Boys, we’ve warned him before. I think he’s had another of those funny breakdowns. One of you go find a doctor, I reckon we’ve done all we can for him here.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The tower’s extreme voltage resonated between the ionosphere and the ground, the waves gaining strength as they fed on the storm’s energy. The lightning discharges vanished, their potential sucked into the tower’s connection to the ionosphere.
The oscillations spread around the world, unnoticed by people as they went about their daily affairs. Finally, the peaking energy became too great for the atmosphere to contain. A massive bolt lanced between the upper atmosphere and the ground.
The discharge ionized the atmosphere, creating a short-lived plasma. The sudden heat expanded the air and created a massive shock wave. The explosion flattened most of the trees and stripped the leaves from others. One remained standing, directly below the airburst. Only the trunk and a few broken limbs remained.
Russians working near Lake Baikal heard the noise and felt the earth ripple. The light earthquake was soon followed by a bass rumbling. That died away too, only the echo remaining as the sound spread from hill to hill.
The tree’s multi-ton weight quivered as the damaged trunk failed. The wood popped, gunshot-loud, as it splintered.
Beneath the tree stood the dazed figure of a man. He looked up in alarm as the splinters landed around him, instinctively raising his arms to ward off the threatening death.
Beneath the toppling giant, a red flash surrounded the man.
The tree shattered when it struck the ground, finishing what th
e explosion had begun. When the dust cleared, there was no sign of the man who’d stood there moments before.
#
“How much longer, Ray?”
“Libby, I don’t know. As long as it takes, I guess.”
“Aren’t we in the future now? I mean, we’ve made this circuit millions of times already! How do we even know it’s working?”
“Libby, we’ve watched the sun after every teleport and it’s gone backward from where it was when we started,” Ray said patiently. “We’ve been to where that Apache tried to axe you and the body was gone. There’s no sign now that anything ever happened there. That was in the past, we’re now in the future. As an absolute check, the last time we visited Albuquerque the train station was finished. I’m not sure exactly when that happened, but I know the railroad hadn’t even bought the land for the station when we ate at Grandpa’s Cafe.
“I doubt we’ve done more than a couple of dozen circuits between Mount Taylor and South Sandia Peak. We’ve only been doing this for a little over a week. You need to have patience; we’re making progress, even if it is slow. Slow is good, because it’s safer.”
Libby pouted. “You’re sure we can’t go faster?”
“I’m sure we’ll get there, the way we’re going, and when we do we’ll likely arrive at the moment we left. We won’t be where we were, because that’s different. We’ll still be here in New Mexico, still on top of a mountain, but as soon as we get to our home time we’ll be able to go home by levitating or taking a plane. If we levitate, we can stay together and make it to Reno, but we’ll have to make sure no one sees us. Two people are twice as likely to be seen. Anyway, we could check on your grandpa in a day, two at the most. We’ll stop somewhere, maybe Little Dry Creek, long enough for Shezzie to wash your clothes, and I can pick up my clothes from the ranch. After we see Grandpa Shorty, I’ll take you shopping. Or maybe Ana Maria or Shezzie will, if they’ve got time. For now, we’ve just got to keep on doing what we’re doing.”