several hundred kilometers away. He always said he loved her and that he would do anything to have her back. But, as before, she never replied.
Roger still had enough contacts to know that the experiment was still on schedule and that no precautions have been taken as a result of his warnings. He believed that his report was never really released to the scientific community, so there was no one to raise questions about the risk.
On the day of the test, Roger was seated in his comfortable chair in his living room, drinking a double bourbon on the rocks. He wasn’t thinking about anything, nor was he capable of thinking about anything, since he had started drinking the night before. He was so numb that he hardly noticed the shock wave as it passed through his home, knocking objects off the walls and shelves. Matilda’s voice gently spoke to him, “Roger, there has been an explosion at Los Alamos. Initial reports say it was equivalent to the old hydrogen bombs of the twentieth century. Everything within one hundred kilometers of the ISQDT lab has been destroyed.”
Roger continued to stare blankly into space; a tear escaped from the corner of his eye and made a dash down his cheek. He repeated the same phrase over and over again, “She’s gone.”
It was a year before the dust settled, both literally and figuratively, on the ISQRT incident. The experiment was being broadcast to a number of sites around the world, so every aspect of what had happened that day was recorded. The Global Administration’s scientific review board was able to put together the sequence of events that lead up to the explosion. Roger was the only person still alive who knew the project in great enough detail. As a result, he was called in a number of times to testify and became essentially an advisor to the board. The first time he saw the holographic images of the experiment in progress and saw Sarah directing the team, he had to excuse himself from the proceedings and go to the bathroom to vomit. He was unable to resume his participation until the next day. Every time he saw Sarah during the projections, he had a strong urge to touch the image. As time went by he got used to seeing her. He got better at hiding the pain that never really went away.
He could tell from the expressions of his colleagues that they knew of his relationship with Sarah, but he wasn’t sure which version they had heard: the one in which he was the bitter man trying to sabotage his ex-lover’s project or the other in which he was the considerate scientist trying to save the woman he loved. Roger didn’t really care which one they believed.
Sarah was not the only person that died that day that Roger knew well. A number of physicists that he had known for years and for whom he had great respect were also vaporized. He also saw that Vandalue was there that day. He thought that at least there was a little justice in the universe.
Of course, Roger had to make it known to the board that he wrote a report on the project pointing out the dangers. At first, his agency tried to play down the report, but, when Roger made copies available to the board and someone eventually leaked it to the public, there was no way to avoid the scrutiny, so they began to provide their full support to Roger and the board. Dr. Gradstein knew that he’d be asked to retire when the investigation was completed. He even let it be known that Roger should be his successor, which Roger thought was very kind, considering he’d been suspended and forced to stand by and let someone he loved be killed. Roger preferred to not think about what he would do after the investigation and concentrated on determining what had happened.
One thing that caught Roger completely by surprise was that once it became known he had tried to stop the test, he became something of a celebrity. His relationship with Sarah made his participation all the more fascinating. He was asked innumerable times to speak on programs ranging from the scientific to the strange, but he always refused. This only tended to make him more interesting, and eventually he had to start living at one of the government’s secured facilities to avoid the attention.
Roger upgraded Matilda with the latest developments in physics, so she became his sounding board, collaborator, and foil. Roger would never admit it, but he also appreciated her ability to keep his ego from become too unwieldy by not-too-subtly pointing out his mistakes. She was instrumental in keeping his psyche intact during this period.
Almost exactly one year after the disaster, the board’s final report was released. It stated that the ISQDT had actually created a tunnel to another part of the galaxy, but the other end of the tunnel had appeared in the interior of a super giant star. The star’s fusion reaction had instantly traveled back to Earth, destroying the facility and the Los Alamos area. Fortunately, the tunnel was only open a few nanoseconds because the equipment generating the tunnel was destroyed by the resulting fusion backflow. If it had remained open a few nanoseconds longer, it could have destroyed the planet. Investigators determined what type of super giant it had come from by the spectrographic analysis of the blast. With considerable help from astrophysicists, Roger had actually managed to determine from which star it had come. Later, after the excitement had died down, Roger would get the star officially renamed Sarah Yakimato. The report’s conclusions were exactly what Roger’s calculations had predicted, but he felt no joy at being right.
A week after the report’s release, Roger and Jack were sitting at one of their favorite restaurants. “Hey, Roger, I really like the beard. I hardly recognized you.”
“That’s the point, you nitwit. I’m incognito.”
“Oh, yeh, that’s right. You’re a celebrity. Can I get your autograph?”
“Drop dead.”
“Ouch, that’s like a ‘no,’ right? So what are you going to do now? Have you finally decided on something? I’d heard they offered you Gradstein’s job.”
“Yes, they did, but I said ‘no thanks.’ There would be way too much baggage with that job, and I would be setting myself up for a fall. No, I’ve decided to go back to doing basic physics. I managed to blackmail them into letting me head up a research project that picks up where the ISQDT project left off. Obviously, it won’t be called that anymore. Sarah’s concept was correct, but she failed to take into account the quantum probabilities that lead to the disaster. I believe I have found a way around that risk and have developed a series of experiments that can confirm it without endangering this part of the galaxy.”
“I’m stunned they’d let you touch that project considering that the public wants to hang anyone associated with it. And are they really going to let you create another tunnel?”
“Well, first off, I’m going to show that it is safe, and, secondly, they made me agree to conduct the test on one of the asteroids out by Jupiter. That way it will only take out me, my staff, and maybe part of Jupiter. I also think that the physics’ community believes this project has the most promise for finally breaking the light-speed barrier. They agree that it has to be pursued.”
“It does sound exciting. Although, having to go to Jupiter must be really rough for someone like you who hates space travel.”
“I really didn’t have much choice. If the experiment works, and we’re able to open pathways to other parts of our galaxy, maybe the whole universe, I will make sure Sarah gets the credit. I can’t stand the idea of her name going down in history as something of a mass murderer. I did, still do, love her.”
Over the next five years, Roger supervised the construction of a test facility on Earth and another one inside a hollowed-out asteroid, called Stella, near the outer edge of the asteroid belt. In 2211, he recreated the sub-atomic tunnel, which lasted only a few nanoseconds and fortunately didn’t result in the destruction of Roger and his asteroid. The work progressed rapidly over the next few years, and soon they could create a sustained tunnel through which they could pass probes. The probes would survey the area on the other side of the passage and ascertain the danger of traveling through the tunnel. In 2224, they successfully sent a spaceship with animal cargo through their Interstellar Yakimato Quantum Tunnel to the Crab Nebula and returned it sa
fely. Humankind had finally found a way to escape from its solar system.
Roger managed to find a reason to be aboard one of the subsequent voyages and planted himself at one of the viewing ports. As the spacecraft left the tunnel and the view from the port was filled with the multi-colored, energized particles that made up the nebula, he said to himself, “Wow! Now this is really different.”
Matilda quipped, “Yeah, and it didn’t even require an equipment malfunction.”
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