Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, except Mary
Walker and the staff of the Chronos Complex! Oh,
yeah, I am not making any money with this!
Sinopsis: A trip to a laboratory that does research on time?
Why does that sounds like trouble?
Classification: E
Archivers: Go ahead!
Very Special Thanks to: Suze, for beta reding this in a *very*
intensive way!!! Thanks a lot, Goddess!
-----------------------
The Time of Your Life
by Carlos Rodriguez
-----------------------
Chapter Two
(of Five)
"Confessions"
"Well, picture this. You suffer a horrible accident and
both of your kidneys are destroyed. Normally, a patient might have
to wait months, even *years* for a donor organ to become available.
During the wait, you would be forced to endure painful dialysis - if
you don't eventually go toxic and die first. Correct?"
Jessie nodded and Mary continued with her explanation. "Well,
utilizing time dilation, we could keep you alive for months while we
find a suitable donor. And for you, no more than five minutes
would have elapsed. This technology could be used to save thousands
of lives!"
Delicately, Mary speared a piece of meat with her fork and
placed it into her mouth.
"Another area we could improve," said Dr. Dhatu. "is food
production. Eventually, we will be able to create time dilation fields
so big that they will surround entire farms. Imagine being able to
grow a calf into an adult cow in no more than two or three days.
"What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is something that
could transform the world into an Utopia."
The night was calm and quiet. The chirp of crickets was the
only thing that broke the stillness of the night.
Mary Walker came out of her bathroom after a refreshing
shower to find Jessie sitted on her bed, looking at the night sky
through the window. Since a trip to New York would take more than a
couple of hours, Dr. Quest had accepted Dhatu's offer and had decided
to sleep in the Complex. But since there were not many living quarters,
Jessie had been assigned to Mary's.
"Penny for your thoughts, Ace."
Jessie had been so lost in her own thoughts that she jumped.
"Oh, I'm sorry," apologized Mary. "I didn't mean to scare you.".
Jessie smiled. "It's okay. Hey... how did you know my
nickname?"
"Er... My psychic powers?"
"I don't think so!"
Mary grinned. "Okay, okay...you got me. I heard Jonny call
you that earlier. And you called him...'Hotshot', right?"
"Yeah... but..."
"I dunno..." Mary shrugged, "I just like to use nicknames.
Much more festive!"
"And what should I call you?"
"Well... Some people used to call me Maria."
"Maria... I like it. Do you mind?"
"Not at all. So, what were you thinking about when I burst
in?"
"Oh, about the conversation we had over dinner. Time dilation
may be the answer to the world's prayers..."
Mary sat at her side. "I know. Time is our biggest enemy. And
here, at Chronos, we are taming it."
"Are you sure it is possible? Time dilation, I mean..."
Mary nodded. "I've developed many of the equations myself. I'm
convinced that time dilation can be achieved. Believe it or not, it
is only a matter of time."
A new day had dawned at the Chronos Complex, and with it,
another long day in the Research labs.
Mary sighed over her console. She had been working on some
equations that would enable her to control the energy pulses that
always overloaded the time dilation field in all the simulations. The
energy burst not only restrained them from holding the field together
more than a couple of seconds, it also annihilated everything inside
the field.
"May I take a look at those equations?" a voice asked behind
her.
She took a look over her shoulder. "Hi, Benton. Sure, be my
guest."
He kneeled to get a look at her terminal, the green numbers
staring back at him.
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with these equations, Mary, but
it looks like you have already violated a couple of elemental laws of
physics."
She grinned. "Well, I didn't break them, I just bended them
a little! A temporal field is not ruled by normal physics. Your mind
has to stop thinking in three dimensions. You must stop thinking in
three dimensions, because you have four dimensions to manipulate."
Her fingers flew over the keypads, and a new row of equations
appeared on the screen. She entered another pair of commands and a
variable switched here and a value changed there.
"Ok, Noys, give me the graphic of this one."
"WORKING. DONE"
In the center of the room, a strange looking holographic
image appeared and began to rotate so all its angles could be seen.
"Just as you can draw three dimensions in a two dimensional
piece of paper, Benton, we have found a way to draw four dimensions
using a 3D image. Noys' holographic projector has been quite useful."
"THE GRAPH SHOWS THE EQUATION IS STABLE. DO YOU WANT TO RUN
A SIMULATION?"
"What do you say, Benton?"
"That's fine by me."
"OK, Noys, begin full simulation."
The graph disappeared and the blue globe took its place.
"SIMULATION READY. RUNNING STAGE ONE."
The same process Benton had witnessed the day before began
again. He also noticed how Jessie, Hadji and Jonny, who had been just
wandering around looking at the computers, froze in their tracks and
stared at the blue globe.
"APPLYING ENERGY" Noys announced, and the globe started
to rotate.
"STAGE ONE COMPLETED. ENTERING STAGE TWO."
The chronometer appeared again. The green numbers, which
indicated the ration between real time and the time inside the field,
showed 1:0.98.
But this time, the simulation didn't stop there.
The chronometer was now up to three seconds, and the time ratio
was even smaller. Mary's jaw dropped. "Oh my god!"
The globe was only a blur now. "TIME FIELD STABLE."
Dr. Dhatu appeared out of nowhere and was staring at Mary.
Disbelief showed on his face. "Mary, what did you.."
"I don't know!" she replied. "I only entered random values.
I wanted to show Benton the energy burst... But this... Noys! Set ratio
to 1:2!"
The globe slowly stopped and then started to rotate in the
opposite direction. The chronometer once again started to count from
zero. Benton noticed how the entire staff had stopped working and were
now holding their collective breath.
"STAGE ONE COMPLETED. ENTERING STAGE TWO."
The green numbers now read 1:1.1. Murmurs of awe filled the
room as the sphere increased its speed.
Then silence blanketed the room as the chronometer once again
flew past the two seconds mark. A few moments later, Noys announced
"TIME FIELD STABLE."
The room erupted into a chaos of cheers and applause as the
green numbers finally stopped at 1:2. Soon, Mary's coworkers were at
her side, congratulating her.
Benton turned to Dr. Dhatu. "I'll have to check your equations,
Zacek. But it looks like you will have your grant after all."
A huge smile formed on the old doctor's face. Then he patted
Benton on the back. "I knew it! You won't be sorry!"
That evening, Mary dropped onto her bed in exhaustion. She
had spent all the day and part of the night double checking the
equations. What had that science fiction author said? 'The word that
preceeds the greatest scientific discoveries is not "Eureka", but
"Funny..."'. Or in this case, "Ooops!".
But everything seemed to be fine. The simulated time field
had been working all day long.. True, it was not the real thing, but
with the theory nailed down, the construction of a time field
generator was only a few years ahead.
She sighed.
"A hard day, Maria?"
She turned to the source of the voice.
"Still awake, Ace? I thought you would be dead to the world
by now."
"I couldn't. I can't stop thinking about what happened today.
I will be able to tell my children I was there when Mary Walker finally
found the way to create a stable time field."
Mary lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. A few moments
went by before she replied. "It is no big deal, really. I only found
it by mistake. The answer had been right there under my nose all along
and I hadn't been able to see it."
"But you *did* find it. The world will remember you for that."
"I guess..."
Silence filled the room until Jessie spoke again. "I think
both of us will have a hard time sleeping tonight."
"Yeah..."
A few more minutes passed by and slept wasn't any closer for
either of them. That's why Jessie made the question. "Why are you
working here?"
"What do you mean?"
"What made you decide to devote your life to time research? A
sci-fi novel attracted Dr. Dhatu to this field. What's your story?"
Mary didn't reply for so long time that Jessie thought she
had fallen asleep. Finally, she answered.
"I loved my grandmother. Everybody told me I had inherited
her eyes. She was my best friend when I was a child... I don't
remember a single moment of my childhood without her."
She paused for a whole minute, then went on. "It was a
drunken driver. She wasn't even driving. She had taken a cab to buy
me a birthday present. Of course, mom didn't tell me that so until I
was fifteen or so... I was seven when grandma died."
Jessie could hear the tears choke and roughen Mary's voice.
"By the time the ambulance arrived at the hospital, there wasn't
anything the doctors could do for her. I remember my mother crying,
whispering, 'If there was only more time...'"
Mary's grey eyes were filled with tears. "Mom was shattered
by her death. Only my father's love kept her going. Life settled
into a relatively normal routine, but it took a very long time. For
a while, Mom threw herself into her work to try to ease the pain...
and the guilt. But eventually, she realized that there was nothing
that she could have done to prevent Grandma's death..."
Jessie looked at her. Mary was still staring at the ceiling,
while tears rolled down her cheeks. For a few minutes, the only
sounds in the room were Mary's sobs.
After a time, Mary spoke again. "We did a lot of things
together... She had told me I was her favorite grandaughter, because I
reminded her of Mom.... Maria... that's what she always called me....
She used to visit us a lot...and when I couldn't sleep, she used to
sing an old Spanish lullaby....it never failed..."
Mary started to sing, slowly. Her beautiful voice filled the
room with a melancholy song.
Duermete, nina *Sleep, girl
Duermete ya Sleep now
O vendra el Coco Or the Boogieman will come
Y te comera And he will get you
Mas no le temas But don't be afraid
Que yo aqui estoy Because I'm here
Duerme sin miedo Sleep without fear
En tu corazon In your heart
Cierra tus ojos Close your eyes
Duerme, mi amor Sleep, my love
Ten dulces suenos Have sweet dreams
De tu corazon From your heart
Y cuando despiertes And when you wake up
Yo estare aqui I'll be here
Para desearte To wish you
Un dia feliz A happy day *
Mary sang the lullaby several times, until her throat was so
dry she had to stop. She wiped the tears from her face and turned
around to see Jessie. She was asleep, her chest rising and falling
under the sheets.
Mary smiled and turned off the light. Then she quickly got
out of bed and quietly left the room...
Nobody would have been surprised to see Mary working late at
night. Everyone knew that it was strange for her to work all night
long until a particularly trickly problem was solved.
However, if they had stumbled upon her this night and seen
what she was working on, then they would have been very puzzled,
indeed..
<< The 'accidental' discovery of the time field
happened just in time. I spent all day in the lab
checking the equations...or at least pretending I was.
I can't help but wonder what would happen if Benton Quest
realizes that everything that happened today was a total
fake.
Everything but one thing.
I told her about Grandma's accident...I can't
believe I'm befriending her! They warned me this could
happen, but I wasn't willing to believe them. I must be
careful...if I let anything slip, I could jeopardize the
entire mission....>>
The ice cream truck stopped on a hill, where the Chronos
Complex could be seen, but the truck couldn't be spotted. A camera in
the driver's seat transmitted the image to a screen in the back.
"Well, well, well..." a synthetized voice said "I wonder what
Dr. Quest is doing here."
"According to this, Jeremiah," a red haired woman announced,
"the Chronos Complex specializes in time research."
Jeremiah Surd moved his hoverchair next to the computer
display. "I see... Can you get into the main computer, Julia?"
She shook her head. "It is connected only to the IRIS network
of Quest Enterprises. And unless we can get our hands on an IRIS
computer, there's no way we can enter the system."
Surd would have groaned if he could. "Then I guess we will
have to get inside using other methods..."
It is time for those magical words: to be continued!
_________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carlos Rodriguez | Cannot find REALITY.SYS |
| carlosrgz@hotmail.com | Universe halted |
|______________________________|__________________________|
______________________________________________________
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