Chapter 11

Tesla paused in front of the doors to the lab, preparing to show the team his ground breaking creation for the first time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ab-normals and murderers. May I present," he threw open the doors. "The Teslator!"

He was met with a resounding silence.

"Did you say Tessalator?" asked Will.

"No pretty boy, I did not. I said Tesla-tor."

"Cos, I gotta tell you, that's a pretty lame name. Tessalator sounds much cooler."

Tesla glared at him, "I'd like to hear you come up with something better. Do you know how hard it is to come up with a name for inventions? It's the hardest part of the whole project." Magnus cleared her throat. "All right, forget the name, I'll work on it. Anyway where was I? Oh yes. Ta da! I'm not exactly being bowled over by your enthusiasm people," he complained.

"Oh great!"

"Yeah, well done."

"It looks amazing."

"Hmmm, marginally better," said Tesla slightly mollified.

In the centre of the lab was 'the machine'. It sat on a pedestal of three steps up from the ground. Three massive titanium semi circular metal arcs were attached to the centre of the pedestal and met again at the top.

"It's beautiful in its simplicity, it really is. I have outdone myself this time, if that is even possible. This would have 'Nobel' written all over it if I weren't in hiding. And they didn't screw it up again."

"Nikola," Magnus tried to interrupt him.

"Maybe I should try out a new identity," continued Tesla not paying attention. "Tesla's great grandson or something. A least the same idiots cant possibly be in charge.

"Nikola!"

"Hmmm, yes?"

"How does it work?" asked Magnus, exasperated with herself for finding Tesla's rant amusing.

"Helen my dear, there is not time enough in all the universe to explain exactly how this baby works. Suffice to say, John stands here," he said running to the centre of the pedestal. "We switch on the power," he waved an arm at a junction box with hundreds of cables leading into it. "The Tesla coil kicks it off, named after, oh wait, me. One arc rotates clockwise and its counterpart anticlockwise. Are you all with me so far? Good," he grinned and took a deep breath.

"The arcs will alternate at near light speed, which will drive the magnetic flux density measured by the Tesla unit," he said pointedly looking at Will. "Which, is held in place by the third arc which will be transversing outside the central two creating the core, the mass of which should project through the fabric of space and therefore time, creating I should point out, a paradox or possibly a black hole which would mean certain obliteration for us all." He stared off into space contemplating the possibilities.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say… What?" said Henry.

Bigfoot grunted in agreement and then pointed out. "I thought you helped build it?"

"I did," said Henry. "That doesn't mean I know what it is."

"So what you're saying is this machine will send a beacon of light and gravity through time and space following John's teleporting trajectory leaving a trail which he can then follow to return back to this time and place?" asked Magnus.

Tesla looked absolutely delighted. "That's exactly it! Helen, your talents are wasted, you should have been a physicist. If you ever want a job, call me." He winked at her. "We've only one last check of absolutely everything to complete and we're hot to trot."

The team scattered all over the Sanctuary to see to their appointed duties leaving Tesla happily adjusting and re-adjusting bits of machinery in the lab.

Magnus walked along one of the darkened corridors which led away from the main lab. It was cooler the further away from the machinery she got. She found Druitt, sitting in the dark his eyes closed.

"Are you ready?" she asked him.

He didn't reply. She sat down next to him on the floor, back against the wall, in the shadows.

"You haven't really talked to me for the past couple of days," she said, trying to make it sound casual.

"I'm sorry," he replied. "I've been trying to focus, I'm worried about this teleport. I've been trying to focus on Ashley, so that I can jump straight to her."

"How does it work?" she asked.

"Usually, I think of a place, picture it in my mind or even on a map and I can get there. It works with people as well. Well, one person. I need it to work for Ashley. I've been thinking about her, but I'm not sure it it's enough. All I can picture is her fighting me, her fists and feet hitting me, hard, and the look on her face when she realized I was her father."

"Do you love her?"

Druitt turned to look at Magnus in the dim light.

"I do."

"Then that is all you have to think about." After a minutes silence Magnus couldn't help but ask. "When did you realize that you loved her?"

He sighed and laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes as he recollected.

"It was when I tried to get her to capture me. She fought me and lost, I let her go and she did it again and failed. I could see it in her eyes, she knew she couldn't beat me, she was furious, but she got up and tried again. Every time." Magnus could hear the smile in his voice without needing to see it. He was proud of his warrior daughter. "She's just as stubborn as you are," said Druitt.

"I want to come with you," she said.

That made him open his eyes.

"No, Helen. You must remain here, in case this contraption fails. I can still get back if you're here."

"How?"

"I don't know. I can… find you, in time and space. You're my constant," he admitted.

They sat in companionable silence, lost in thought. Eventually Druitt stood up and walked out of the corridor, out of the darkness, toward the light that would take him to the future. Magnus gave him some time before she followed him to the lab.

Tesla was checking over every piece of his beloved machine. "I should probably warn you. It's going to get hot in here," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at Magnus. "Not that it isn't already. Anything liable to melt or with potential to burst into flames should be removed. You will lose the computer system. It's rather fortunate this is a stone building or we'd all burn to death."

Henry came running into the lab. "It's here! The storm's arrived. A few more minutes and we should have lightning."

Bigfoot and Will entered the lab, behind him having just completed the last sweep of the building.

"How did you get your computer to work?" asked Will. "There's a blackout radius of a mile around the building."

"Come on boy genius, I looked out the window."

"Oh." Feeling mildly embarrassed, Will reported to Magnus. "There's no one in the building or in the grounds. The perimeter is locked down."

"Good," said Magnus. "Thankyou both. Now take Henry with you and get out."

Will stepped forward. "Yeah, we thought you'd say that, and we're all agreed… No." It took guts to say that to Magnus, a woman they all respected immensely. "We're staying."

"You can't do anything to help."

"Maybe not, but we want to be here when you get Ashley back."

"Clear the lab," said Tesla. "If you're staying, get out of my lab. Or there will be a highly likely occurrence of death. There are 3 things everyone staying needs to know."

"Number one: no one in the lab. Number two. There will be a shockwave as the sound barrier is broken. It may make the more faint-hearted among you jump. Number three. I don't know what will happen at number three. Hopefully it will give John a kick up the backside as he teleports, without scattering his molecules halfway around the galaxy. Helen, we'll need someone to watch the radiometer in the grounds. Let me know if anything happens that shouldn't be happening."

Magnus nodded, "There you go fellas. That's your task."

The machine started whirring. The three metal arcs began to accelerate making an odd sound as they rotated around each other and cut through the air. Druitt stood in the middle of them, eyes closed, head bowed, focused on the task ahead. Magnus peered over Tesla's shoulder.

"Nikola, I probably should have asked this earlier. Do you know what you're doing?"

He looked at her and grinned. "Not really," he admitted. "Isn't it exciting!?"

The whirring of the machinery was getting louder and louder making it hard to hear anyone speak. Tesla shouted to Druitt. "John, just to let you know, there's a very good chance this won't work at all. And an even better one that you'll die a very painful, but not undeserved, death. Any last confessions? Preferably ones the whole world doesn't all ready know."

Of course he'd left it so it was too late for Druitt to do anything. Druitt shouted back. "If this works, I'll repay you by not killing you." Then, a couple of seconds later, "I have faith in you Nikola."

Tesla looked momentarily stunned by the sincere admission. He glanced at Magnus standing next to him, her eyes were fixed on Druitt.

"Let's see how brilliant I really am. Let the show begin," said Tesla. He pulled a lever and more power entered the chamber. It started crackling, high voltage electrical energy. Tesla took Magnus by the arm and led her out of the chamber.

"It would be certain death even for the more resilient among us to remain in there. I might make it but you certainly wouldn't."

The machine reached a high pitched whine then, a shock wave rippled out spreading for miles. There was no sound in the chamber any more. Not that there was anyone in the chamber to make a noise. John Druitt had disappeared.