Chapter 24

Author's Note 1: Before you start reading this chapter I want say a few things about it. First of all, I haven't yet taken physics, or chemistry for that matter. Everything I know about those two subjects I have read from scientific websites. So, if you do know about those two things and you notice I err, please let me know. If you don't know anything about those two subjects, just nod and smile like Jack does when he's confused.

Author's Note 2: I know I normally change chapters when the scene changes, but if I did that here the chapter would be like 50 pages long. That's why it is divided up a bit oddly.

Author's Note 3: If you're wondering why I changed the rating it's because our favorite colonel felt the need to swear. It's not excessive, just once or twice.

Author's Note 4: And finally, a BIG thank you to all of you who have reviewed. Nothing brightens up my day and puts a smile on my face like a review. I think I enjoy your reviews almost as much as you enjoy this story!!

Jack had been pacing back and forth in their small cell for the last 20 minutes. The rest of them sat quietly, afraid to say something and incur his wrath. It didn't take a rocket scientist (although if it did, they happened to have someone who fit that description) to tell that Jack was, to borrow one of his favorite yet lesser-used phrases, 'royally pissed'. Finally he sat down with a sigh and took off his hat.

-An ambush!!! A freakin' ambush!!!! Jacob talk to me!!

Jacob took a deep breath.

-I guess our operative was compromised worse than we thought.

-Worse than you thought?!?

-Yeah. We thought that he had been discovered but was able to escape without revealing any pertinent information. Apparently we were wrong.

-Apparently!! We hadn't been through the gate for two seconds before they attacked!!

Jacob smiled.

-But, look at the bright side. We're inside the complex.

-Inside the complex with no weapons, no means of escape and no idea where the stupid 'centralized location' is!!!!!!

Katie grinned.

-Um, actually dad, that's not true.

He looked at her skeptically.

-Which part?

-All three.

-You're telling me that you have weapons, a means of escape, and know what we have to blow up??

She nodded.

-The, why in the hell didn't you tell us that before!?!?!?!?!?

Katie cringed.

-Gosh dad, there's no reason to swear. There's a very simple explanation. The Law of Causality.

Jack blinked.

-What?!

Katie sighed and got this funny look in her eye as she began to quote the famous Werner Heisenberg.

-"In the sharp formulation of the law of causality 'if we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future'- it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise."

-Huh?

Sam smiled, saw where Katie was going and added.

-"The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in that instant and vice versa."

She turned to Katie.

-You know, I've never thought of applying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or The Law of Causality to travel between alternate universes. How'd you come up with that? It's a very intriguing idea.

-Uh, actually my uh…one of my uh…professors came up with it.

-Really? Who?

Katie mentally kicked herself and tried to think of what to tell her. She obviously couldn't tell Sam that that she came up with it. Luckily, Jack, in his ignorance, changed the flow of the conversation.

-So, how does that explain anything?

Katie smiled.

-I didn't know for sure until we go here that the details of this mission were exactly the same. I didn't want to get your hopes up.

Jack sighed, confused.

-But you said at the briefing…

-I know. But, there is always going to be a slight possibility that the details will be changed, because you can't predict the future.

-How slight?

-Miniscule.

-How miniscule?

-Roughly .7 percent.

-Oh. Ok. I can live with that.

-Good. You don't have a choice.

-Right. So, uh, where is this 'centralized location'?

Katie smiled.

-You're sitting in it.