Dr. Gregory Paite stepped into the metal elevator and thedoors slid shut automatically. Therewere only two buttons, and Dr. Paite pressed the bottom one. The elevator began to move with a suddenlurch that left Gregory’s stomach suspended for a moment. The descent was fast and smooth as theelevator dropped fifteen stories to a deep excavated cavern. When the doors slid open, Gregory foundhimself in a long stone tunnel lined with banks of high output LED’s.
A small battery-powered golf cart was parked next to one walland plugged into a charging outlet. Gregory unplugged the cart and drove it down the quarter mile long trackto the research facility. A pair ofheavy blast doors stood open, and he drove through them without pausing. There were no security guards in thesubterranean levels of the research facility. If someone made it through the multiple levels of surface checks andaccess points, the assumption was that they belonged here, and they wereallowed to move freely. Of course, sincethere was only one entry and exit point, it was very easy to control who gainedaccess to the lower levels in the first place, rendering it a somewhat mootpoint.
Dr. Paite parked the cart outside the main control room andstraightened his tie and his lab coat before opening the heavy metal door andstepping into the maelstrom on the other side of the door. Lab techs were hurrying everywhere andsystems engineers were checking computer displays and adjusting hoses or cablesas they thought necessary. At the farend of the row of computer and monitors was the director of operations’ office,Gregory’s immediate supervisor on site, and the only person to whom Gregory hadto report.
As soon as Gregory was inside the door, his assistantspotted him and nodded towards the Director’s closed office door. Gregory swallowed hard, and started the longwalk to the boss’ office. He knew he’dhave to explain Dr. Mathis’ unexpected visit somehow, and he’d been working ona convincing story that he could spin to gain Dr. Mathis access to the lab andthe experiment. As he stepped into theDirector’s office, though, that convincing story flew right out of his head.
“Dr. Paite,” The Director said impatiently, “I don’t know ifyou’re aware, but the United States government has invested considerable timeand money into this endeavor of yours. And, as you so aptly pointed out to your former professor, we expect areturn on that investment and we cannot accomplish that return without yourexpertise. Understood?”
“Yes, sir, but I—” Gregory began, but the Director cut himoff.
“Dr. Paite I am not a scientist or a researcher, but I havebeen placed in charge of this experiment. Do you know why?” The Directorasked, but he didn’t wait for Gregory to answer. “Because I am and administrator, and a damnedfine one at that. I know how to keeppeople organized and on task, and above all, I get the job done. Now, I trust we won’t have any more uninvitedguests or unscheduled breaks in our scheduled ramp up and initial test run,will we?”
“No sir,” Gregory replied with a heavy sigh. “We’re putting the last settings andpreparations in place as we speak. Weshould be able to launch the initial test in a few minutes.”
“Good,” The Director said, shuffling some papers on his deskwithout looking up. “I expect a full runonce it is complete.”
“You don’t want to watch, sir?” Gregory asked.
“I told you, Dr. Paite,” The Director replied with that sameimpatient tone, “I’m an administrator, not an academic. I trust you’ll perform just fine whether I’mthere or not.”
Gregory nodded and closed the door on his way out. As soon as the door was closed, the privacyglass fogged, and the interior of the office was cut off from view. Three lab techs were waiting for instructionson how to solve minor issues with the vessel, and he sent them off withinstructions on how to stabilize the Helium flow and how to balance themagnetic load on the spherical field they would generate.
Finally, Dr. Paite led the research team in a pre-launchchecklist, marking off each of the key indicators as either go or no-go. They had green lights across the board, andeverything was set. Dr. Paite gave theorder to begin liquid He pumping to cool the outer shell. As the cryogenic pumps whirred to life, thelead technician in charge of the highly sensitive photometer within the vesselcalled out in excitement. “Dr.Paite! Dr. Paite! We’re getting a spike here on the detector!”
Gregory rushed over to the computer read out and checked thedisplay. “Are you sure? What’s the wavelength?”
The technician tapped some keys and brought up the graphwith a clear spike at the 1266nm wavelength. Gregory felt his pulse begin to race. He looked over at the laser control group, who looked like they had seena ghost.
“Have you guys fired up the 633nm HeNe laser yet?” Gregory asked.
The lead technician shook his head slowly. “No sir,” He said, “We weren’t even set toswitch on the power supply for another four minutes.”
For a brief moment, the room was deathly silent.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen,” Gregory said, his voice tingedwith awe, “I think we’ve just received our first message from the future.”
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