FIVE

"Fourteen hours?" Piper asked. "Are you sure?"

"Well, these are rough calculations," said Malcolm. "And I don't know if the loss of coolant is constant. But based on the amount of time it's taken to loose what's all ready gone I think they're fairly accurate."

"How can you tell how long it's been?" Piper asked. "Time is frozen outside that bubble."

"But not inside it," said Malcolm. He indicated a dial on the control panel. "That dial is an indicator of the total time elapsed since the experiment started. It's one of the readings we use when we analyze the results. According to that dial it's been just over nine hours since this started."

"Why aren't I tired?" Piper asked.

"No passage of time," said Malcolm. "Many things you are used to may be different."

"But I was hungry a while ago," said Piper. "So were you. Why were we hungry but not tired?"

'I can't answer that," said Malcolm. "No one's ever done anything like this before. It's all uncharted territory, so to speak."

"Okay," said Piper, "well looks like we have a deadline. Whatever you're going to do you'd better do it quickly. If your calculations are right everything is going to go poof in fourteen hours, give or take."

"It's not that simple," said Malcolm. "First, I have to figure out what went wrong. That could take hours or even days. Then I have to analyze what caused it to go wrong and formulate a way to correct it. And then I have to implement the correction and that could involve a whole new set of calculations and perhaps additional equipment. There just isn't enough time."

"Then make the time," demanded Piper. "We can't just stand here and wait for the entire world to be destroyed."

"I am open to suggestions," said Malcolm. "These are very advanced scientific and mathematical calculations we're dealing with. It took us nearly three months just for the calculations of the main program. And that was utilizing the combined resources of nearly a dozen world-class mathematicians. I can't possibly do it by myself in so short a time."

"Okay," said Piper, stepping away from the control panel. "If you can't do anything about it then I guess it's up to me."

Piper raised her hands and tapped into her explosive power. The power impacted with the barrier and exploded. But the barrier remained intact.

"What in the world?" Malcolm questioned, looking at Piper.

"I told you," said Piper, "I'm a witch. I have the ability to blow things up. But apparently it's not helping in this situation."

"Of course not," said Malcolm. "The intersecting electromagnetic fields strengthen each other. The more force that's exerted against the field the stronger it gets. So I'm afraid any physical force used against it is a total waste of time."

"Great," said Piper. "So is there anyway to shut this thing down?"

"There are only two ways to stop it," said Malcolm. "There's an emergency shut off switch on the control panel. It was installed in the event of a catastrophic systems failure."

"Looks like you didn't take all possible catastrophes into account," said Piper.

"Yes, well, it's difficult to account for the unexpected," said Malcolm. "If we could it wouldn't be unexpected."

"Right," said Piper. "You mentioned two ways."

"Yes," said Malcolm. "The only other way to shut the device down is to shut off the power being supplied to it. Without the power the device will shut down and the electromagnetic fields will dissipate. That should restore time to its normal flow."

"So in order to shut it down," said Piper, "we have to get inside the force field."

"Exactly," said Malcolm. "And as I told you there's no way to do that. The field surrounds the device an all sides and there's no way to physically penetrate it."

"Isn't there anyway past the field?" Piper asked.

"No," said Malcolm. "As I said, the interconnected electromagnetic fields surround the device on all sides. And there's no way to physically pass through them."

"I see," said Piper. "Well, if we can't pass through the barrier we have to go around it."

"Go around it?" questioned Malcolm. "I'm not sure what that means exactly."

"Come on," said Piper. "We have to find my sister, Paige. If we can figure out a way to unfreeze her we might just have a chance to stop doomsday."

Confused Malcolm followed Piper out of the warehouse.