"How's that?" Trance asked.

"There, that's it," Harper replied. "Hold it right there." His face a grimace of concentration, the engineer powered up his hand welder and started fusing the piece of metal Trance was holding into place. He lowered his voice before speaking again, making sure the sound of his welder would let only Trance hear him. "How we doin'?"

The golden-skinned alien glanced over her shoulder. "Another one just left," she answered softly. "We're down to half a dozen."

"And Deedran?"

"Still here."

"Blast. I was hoping to get rid of that particular overly excitable chinhead, but I guess he's got more patience than I have time for. We need to get started."

"At least we know the ones that are still here are truly interested in your experiment," Trance commented. "They should be of some help."

"Yeah, well, we can hope. I just wish that my little ploy to get rid of the disinterested ones had gotten rid of a few more." Harper shut off his welder and stepped back to survey his handiwork. In actuality, the small structure he and Trance had just constructed served no real purpose, except to waste time while they tried to thin out the herd of babbling scientists who wanted to be in on the teseract experiment. "There," he said loudly. "That should do it. Well, Professor Deedran, esteemed fellow scientists, I do believe that we are ready to get this show on the road."

"Oh, most excellent, Mr. Harper!" Deedran exclaimed, with far more enthusiasm than Harper had hoped he would be feeling. "My assistants and I are as ready as ever to help you!"

"That's what I was afraid of," Harper muttered to Trance as he brushed past her to head off the Perseid scientists as they swarmed toward him. "Great, great!" he said out loud. "That's wonderful! Okay, first, let's find out a bit about each other. How many of you here have done any sort of successful experiments with teseracts?"

Professor Deedran raised his hand and all but started bouncing excitedly, and one of the others half raised his and looked dubious.

Harper tried not to choke in dismay, even as he struggled to keep grinning. "Well, uh... that's great! That's wonderful! Um, you," he pointed to the dubious fellow, "what did your experiment involve?"

"Well, uh, I was trying to determine how to phase shift living biological organisms in and out of normal space," he began slowly, kneading his hands uncertainly. "I learned many useful things, but um, well, I'm not sure I would call it a complete success." He ended with several quick nods and nervous grin.

"Good, good," Harper encouraged him. "But what do you mean you wouldn't call it a complete success?"

"Um, well, hehe, I was using my son's terka bird as a test subject, and um..." He trailed off, still rubbing his hands.

"Yes, and?" Trance prompted, her voice curious.

"Well, uh, I blew it up."

Harper smirked and gave Trance his 'what-did-I-tell-you' look. Trance just rolled her eyes.

"That's great, that's great," Harper replied. "You learned not to use live subjects until you've tested out nonliving ones, good."

The Perseid nodded gratefully and gave a relieved chuckle. "Ha-ha, yes."

"Oh, oh, don't you want to hear about my experiment, Mr. Harper?" Deedran asked as Harper started to turn back toward the table with his real experiment on it.

The engineer put his arm around the Perseid's shoulder in a friendly manner. "I'd love to, Prof, but I'm afraid we don't have that kinda time. I'll just have to take your word for it. Now, if you wouldn't mind sending one of your nice little friends over there to check on our generator and make sure it's working properly, we can get down to business."

Deedran did a good job of looking both disappointed and eccentrically eager at the same time, but nodded readily. "Of course, of course!" He straightened from listening to Harper and turned to wave at one of his female assistants. "Assistant Professor, would you please go check on Mr. Harper's generator to ensure that it is functioning at peak efficiency?"

The Assistant Professor grinned widely and hurried toward one of the side doors, apparently excited just to be moving.

"Now what?" Deedran asked.

"Now," Harper replied as he started checking over the machine that sat on the table, "make sure you and your fellow scientists are ready to observe and take notes. First, we're gonna make sure that this thing can actually be turned on without causing any unwanted teseract events. Once we're sure it's safe, that's when the real fun begins."

Deedran nodded excitedly, and went to repeat to his fellows what Harper had said, even though they had obviously already heard him.

"This looks just like the teseract generator we used onboard the Andromeda," Trance said, lowering her voice as she spoke to the engineer. "I thought you said you had made modifications to it."

"I did," Harper replied. "Take a look at this photonic resonator. I've completely redesigned it so that it will have more control over the teseract energy that this thing will create. It's got more circuit connections, and an improved networking capability, which will allow it to siphon off any unwanted extra energy that we end up with. Plus," he went on proudly, holding up what looked like a remote control, "I've rigged our generator so that it can be shut down with a touch of this big red button here. If anything goes wrong, I can shut it down in the matter of a second."

"I... see," Trance muttered. She didn't look convinced. "But will shutting it down stop any unwanted teseract events?"

"Ah, see, that's also one of my modifications. When Hoon, Raquim, and I worked on the first version of this puppy, we had certain components of it powered up. That meant when it was completed, it would already be turned on and ready to rumba. But this one I've kept powered down until it was complete. That means that no matter what mistakes I will make in the future, it can't do anything, because it ain't turned on yet."

"I'm not sure I get it."

Harper shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's one of those future, past, present paradox things. If you really wanna know the details, I'm sure Deedran over there would be more than happy to explain it to you."

Trance's eyes grew wide. "I... think I'll pass on that," she replied.

"Look, don't worry," Harper assured her. "Everything's taken care of. If something goes wrong, I'll just turn it off and everything will be fine."

Trance crossed her arms over her chest. "If you say so."

The engineer rolled his eyes and spread his arms in exasperation. "Trust the Harper; the Harper is good."

"Where have I heard that before?"

"Never mind. Look, no one's making you stay here. If you want to leave, feel free. You can take a shuttle to Sonoma-Kora Drift and wait for me there if it'll make you feel better."

Trance just cocked her head to one side and gave him the 'I'm-not-going-anywhere' look.

He grinned. "I thought so. Just watch, and be amazed." He turned back to Deedran and his companions. "Is the generator ready?"

"Fully functional and ready to begin," the Professor reported.

"All right. Let's rock." Harper pulled his goggles over his eyes, as if they would provide any protection against teseract radiation, and began connecting wires and cables. Pulling one of his datapads out of his shirt pocket, he punched in a sequence of commands. Gradually, the conical-shaped teseract device on the table started to light up, making little whirs and clicks as it powered up. "That's right, sing for me baby," he murmured as he concentrated.

A series of collective ohs and ahs rose from the gathered Perseids. Harper didn't allow himself to be distracted, but kept working. Trance stood still as a stone, her green eyes fixed on the machine as its lights grew brighter. Suddenly, she gasped.

That made Harper look up. "Trance? You okay?"

After a moment, she looked up to meet his worried gaze. "We're not going to be in a moment," she said, even as she turned toward the Perseids. "Professor, get your people out of here, now! Get as far away from this room as you can!" The aliens gaped at her for a moment. "Do it! Now!" she all but yelled.

The tone of her voice made the Perseids scramble for the door.

"Trance, what's wrong?" Harper asked.

"Harper, shut it down!" she commanded. "Something really bad is about to happen!"

"Um, okay, sure." He reached for his shutdown remote, and pressed the button. Nothing happened. The generator continued to power up.

"Shut it down, Harper!" Trance repeated.

In the next room, a low boom resounded, echoing through the entire lab complex.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Harper exclaimed. He slammed his fist on the button repeatedly. "It's not working! The generator must be on overload!"

"Is there any way we can stop it?" she yelled over the growing roar of pent up power.

"I'll have to shut it off manually!" he shouted back. "You'd better make a run for it, Trance! I'll follow as soon as I shut it off!"

"I'm not going anywhere!" Trance replied. "I can help!"

Harper didn't bother to argue with her. He knew he didn't have the time. He had to get the generator that was powering his teseract machine shut down, before it exploded – or worse. But even as he turned for the door to the other room, another explosion rocked the lab, and the door started to buckle inward. Smoke and sparks boiled around the edges. "I guess that rules that option out," he said as he backed away from it.

Trance looked around the room desperately, trying to figure out some way to stop the power up process. Her eyes fell on one of the metal bars they had been using to build Harper's fake project. Immediately, she knew what she had to do. She grabbed it with both hands, turned toward the teseract generator – which by now was glowing almost as brightly as a miniature sun – and raised the makeshift weapon above her head.

"Trance, no!" Harper exclaimed. He started toward her, even while realizing there was no way he could reach her in time.

But her blow never had time to fall.

A blinding blue-white flash filled the room, accompanied by an ear shattering crackling sound. Time seemed to stand still as Trance fell backward, the metal bar spinning out of her hands in slow motion. Harper found himself floating in midair from where he had jumped toward her, trying to push her away from the machine. Gradually, he became aware that he was screaming; so was Trance. It felt like his insides were being ripped out of his skin, like his skull was going to explode from the pressure.

Another explosion rocked the facility, this one larger than any of the others. The lights died even as shards of debris rained down about them.

Dimly, Harper realized he was falling, or at least his body was. He watched himself hit the floor, but couldn't feel it. He saw Trance fly backward into another table, saw the back of her head slam against the edge. That was when he felt the pain.

As blackness finally took him, one thought rang through his mind. This is so not good.