Atwater walked into the lab and nodded to Phillips. He could see Dr.Morgan and Ted inside the inner lab as they worked at the face of the large machine.
“May I?” He asked Phillips, but walked through the open door before he could answer. “What answers do you have for me gents?” Ted looked up, while Morgan continued to work intensely on a control unit.
“Afternoon, sir. I’m glad you could come.” Ted shook his hand.
“So, what is it? Good news, I hope.”
“Yes, sir, I believe so. We have made some progress on the frequency theory. Give him just a moment.” He said as he nodded at Morgan. With the last tweak of a potentiometer, Dr. Morgan looked up and nodded to Atwater.
“General, sir. As I have mentioned before, there seems to be a harmonic frequency or vibration, if you will, to the gravitation wave form being generated by the gate. Once the gamma beam has torn into the fabric of time and space, we have been unable to stabilize the opening, or to reliably increase its microscopic size.”
“I heard this before. So what do you have new?” Atwater asked, his patience already diminished.
“Well, sir, we have had some very optimistic results when varying the harmonic frequency of the gravitational wave form.”
“What the fuck does that mean in English, Dr. Morgan?” Atwater demanded. Morgan was taken aback by his brashness. He looked back to Ted for support. Ted nodded for him to continue.
“Well…sir…we’ve been able to stabilize the opening, sir. In the earlier result where we had some success, you’ll remember that Ted here appeared to exit the gate on the other side, seconds before he actually entered the gate. In reviewing the high speed video capture we were able to ascertain that he did indeed exit the wormhole, in our timeline, seconds before he actually entered it from that same time line. Hence our proof of concept that time travel into the past was possible. But what remained a problem was that the opening into the wormhole had begun to rapidly deteriorate from the very moment of its creation. So fast in fact, that it literally winked out of existence fractions of a second after he entered it.”
“True enough, I had traveled into the past.” Ted confirmed. Morgan went on.
“However, without stability in the opening, he was in grave danger. As would be anyone that attempted to enter the gate. If it closed while they were…” He paused, unsure how to continue. Phillips spoke up as he entered the inner lab.
“If it closed while they were entering or exiting the gate, it would literally cut them in half, with half of their bodies in the present, and half in the past.”
“And very dead, either way.” Ted said.
“Yes. Very grave consequences.” Morgan agreed.
“Okay, I get it.” Atwater replied. “So everybody dies. What’s new.”
“It’s the frequency, sir. All along since we began pursuing this theory, we’ve been attempting to harmonize the frequency with our current gravitation wave form. But that’s not the correct solution. It’s the frequency of the gravitational wave of the destination point. Not the origination point. That’s what has to be harmonized.”
“English, Doc. English.” Atwater said, clearly exasperated.
“That is English, sir.” Morgan replied, the confusion evident on his face.
“It’s like this, sir.” Ted began. “We have to oscillate the gates electromagnetic field in such a way, that it reaches a harmonic frequency of the same gate, but in the past. It’s like with a wireless digital transmission. The transmitter and receiver must be in synch in order to communicate.”
“Exactly!” Morgan agreed. “When the gravitational wave of this gate, here and now, is in synch with the gravitational wave form of the same gate in the past, we can use the gamma ray beam to rip the space time fabric, the electromagnetic field will open the gate, and as long as the harmonics continue, the gate will stay open and stable.”
“You say this like you have done it, Morgan.” Atwater replied. “You said, ‘will stay open’. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean ‘might stay open’?”
“Well, theoretically, it will stay open.”
“How about this Doc.” Atwater began. “Take that theory crap and shove it up your ass. Call me when it’s fact.” He turned and walked out of the inner lab.
“Touchy.” Morgan said.
“Sir!” Ted called after Atwater, and hurried to follow him.
“Let’s get on with it.” Dr. Morgan said to Phillips behind him. “Prepare the initiation sequence.” Jack followed Atwater out of the main lab and caught him in the hallway.
“Sir, could you take it easy on him. He’s making progress.”
“Progress? He should be making progress. It’s been ten years, Truman!”
“But, sir. The progress we’ve made in the last few months is more than we’ve made all of that time. We’re almost there. I can feel it.”
“Maybe your right, Truman. I’ll see if I can tone it down with him…but he just drives me crazy with all of his techno babble.” Ted smiled at Atwater’s frustration.
“Trust me, sir. It’s not babble.” Atwater turned to walk away, but stopped and turned back.
“Hey, you make any progress on King?”
“A little. I’ve located his assigned precinct and have reached out to his captain. But, sir…”
“Yeah, I know. Don’t count on it.”
“Right. It’s a long shot at best.”
Chapter 8