Chapter 8

"You have a very odd sense of humor, James," Wesley commented as he looked up from his pages of notes at the cartoon sketch that was posted up on the wall. "What does a large ring with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it have to do with redesigning how we transfer people and materials between worlds?"

Jillian rolled her eyes from her perch at a lab bench, where she was carefully examining her latest batch of circuits for the machine. "You really are in the dark when it comes to the latest TV shows, Wesley. That's a stargate, from the movie by the same name, and the series Stargate SG-1."

"I've heard of Stargate, though I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. It's really not the type of movie I care to watch." Wesley tucked his pen behind his ear, setting his notes aside for the moment. "It appears rather unsuited for the purpose of travel anywhere. There is no medium through which to establish a gateway, even one which can't return the traveller to their starting point."

"You have to dial the destination up first, then it opens up a wormhole to another stargate at your destination point. They walk through at one end, have a rough ride, and come out some place else. Always in the same universe, though."

"Which has nothing to do with what we're working on. And how does the theory behind that work? You have to have a medium to work through, or you're going to exponentially increase your power consumption to create that medium, as well as the gateway. It isn't a logical system at all." Wesley frowned, shaking his head. "The machine already takes the same kind of power as a large city to open and maintain the gateway for human travel, and it would take at least as much power, possibly more, to create and maintian the medium to anchor the departure point."

"It's a sci-fi TV show, Wesley. It doesn't have to make sense." James didn't even look up from the computer screen. "I have as good an image of the interior of the Hyperion Hotel as I'm going to get. Unless you can give me specs on the theory you're working on that doesn't need an image?"

"Not yet." Wesley sighed, pulling his pencil from behind his ear, and picking his notes back up. "There are still several flaws in it that I have to work out before we can plug in the new equations, and expect to get somewhere we can recognize, whole, and not trapped in something unfortunate. Like a wall."

"Eww." Jillian wrinkled her nose. "That's not an image I need, Wesley!"

Wesley shrugged, his mind already drawn into the world of figures and equations that was his current research project.

Jillian hummed as she worked under the desk that formed the base for the computer console she was building. They had decided to cut out many of the luxeries they had designed for the original prototype, to speed up the construction. She could hear James instructing Lindsey and Gunn in settling the sheet of glass into place in its sillicon and metal base, and the annoyed comment from Wesley about her choice in music.

"Wesley, deal with it." She slid out from under the desk to give the scholar an annoyed look. "It helps me work, and we're trying to get this built as soon as possible." She glanced over at Lindsey a moment. "He's gotten more determined in the last month about getting this project done. It's almost frightening."

"You aren't the one who has to listen to him mutter about something being wrong with Shannon, and watch him pace a rut in the carpet at James's apartment." Wesley glanced over at Lindsey, then back to Jillian. "Would an extra pair of hands be of any help?"

Jillain nodded. "Yes, an extra pair of hands would be helpful." She indicated the other side of the desk. "Stand over there, and do exactly what I tell you to do. Which will be mostly threading wires through various holes in the surface of the desk at the moment. The hard part comes later." She slid back under the desk as Wesley went to the other side of the desk.

It took them the next hour to fnish threading all the wires, and lay them out so they would run to where they needed patched in, while James put Lindsey and Gunn to work setting up the projector. He finished the adjustments on the base for the glass sheet, leaving it unconnected to the computer that Jillian was beginning to construct around the desk.

"I wish we had her notes on the final fine-tunings she did on the machine," muttered James as he made another slight change to the contacts that ran up both sides of the glass. "For all we know, we could leave Lindsey and you scattered across LA, instead of where we're trying to get you. Or you might end up in a slightly different version of the universe, and not where Shannon and Alexa are."

"James, the theory is sound, and she wouldn't have changed the equations and algorithoms for the program. There's an infintesimal chance that we'll fail where she succeeded." Jillian rolled her eyes from under the desk. "She's an artist, not a scientist. She wouldn't have changed much in the practical department."

"I still wish we had her notes on the final tweakings. It might change the power consumption a bit, or..."

"James." Jillian interrupted him, sliding out from under the desk to meet his gaze. "Shut up, quit worrying, and help get this thing finished."

James scowled a moment, but he went back to working on the glass sheet and its connections.