SEVEN
It took more than three weeks to get the bomb ready. Building the bomb and securing the nuclear material for it was relatively easy. Even the calculations needed for it was easier than Sam had thought they would be. The problem was the timer and detonator for the bomb. If they were to be successful the bomb had to be detonated at a very precise moment. Too early and it could rupture the time line producing disastrous effects. Too late and it would exit the time line before detonating potentially destroying a large area of habituated land. And neither of those scenarios would displace the barrier that was blocking the time line.
Finally Sam, Tony, and Doug announced that they were ready. As expected removing the nuclear material from the reactor significantly reduced the power output from the reactor. When the power output dropped, the protective bubble around the complex shrank drastically. Of the 273 levels that had currently comprised the remainder of the complex, 157 had immediately vanished. Thankfully all the people in the complex, as well as any important equipment, had already been moved to the upper levels of the complex and nothing of significance had been lost.
But Samantha announced that the protective bubble was shrinking at an even faster rate than before. Based on the rate of shrinkage she estimated that the 14 weeks they originally had left had been reduced to just over 7 weeks. Less than two months before everything simply ceased to exist. Everyone was gathered in the control room for the temporal generator. The bomb sat in the quantum leap accelerator waiting to be transported through the time stream.
"We've calculated the exact position of the barrier based on all the known data," Sam said. "When we activate the accelerator the bomb will be sent down the time line to that position. We've programmed it to exit the time stream a fraction of a second before it reaches that location. Just before it exits the time stream it should detonate. The shape charge will direct the blast toward the center of the barrier. A fraction of a second later the nuclear material should detonate and the nuclear blast should be focused in the direction the shape charge has been directing."
"The force of the nuclear blast should punch a hole through the center of the barrier and exit on the opposite side," continued Tony. "The neutrinos from the blast should bond with the antineutrinos of the barrier and their momentum should carry them in the direction of the blast. All that energy being released into such a concentrated area should have the comparable effect of a black hole. It should draw all of the barrier material with it. Something like pushing a pencil through a sheet of paper."
"How does that dissipate the barrier?" Bill asked. "It just sounds like you'll be moving the barrier farther back up the time stream."
"Everything we've described will happen in a nanosecond," said Sam. "At that point the nuclear explosion will overwhelm the explosion from the shape charge, absorbing it, and the nuclear explosion will then expand in all directions just as any explosion would. This should dissipate the barrier in all directions effectively removing it."
"How do you know the barrier won't just reform once it's been dissipated?"
"That's the risky part," Sam said. "Once we've gotten indications that the bomb had detonated, we'll have to shut off the temporal generator. That will stop the stream of antineutrinos that have been bombarding it. Imagine a hole filled with water with a steady stream of water being used to fill the hole. Now, you drop a hand grenade into the hole. When the grenade detonates, all of the water in the hole is ejected in all directions. With the stream of water still filling the hole it would quickly refill despite the explosion. But shut off that stream at the moment the grenade detonates and there's nothing to fill the hole up again. That's essentially what we expect to happen here."
"Expect?" questioned Bill. "You don't know for sure?"
"This is uncharted territory, Bill," said Samantha. "No one has ever tried anything like this before. There's no way we can know exactly what's going to happen with complete certainty. But we've run numerous scenarios and, with Ziggy's help, we're fairly certain this will go off as Sam and Tony have described. There are some variables we can't account for but those should be minor. At least, we hope they will."
"Well," Bill said, "we all knew this was risky going into it. And we really don't have any other options. How long after we send the bomb down the time stream will it take before we know when it detonated?"
"Within a matter of seconds," said Sam. "The timing is going to be critical. Too soon or too late even by a fraction of a second and we won't get the desired effect. For that reason I've programmed Ziggy to shut off the temporal generator as soon as we've detected the detonation. Her reactions are infinitely quicker than any humans' and she'll be able to shut the generator down at the instant we need to. Basically, once we've activated the accelerator and sent the bomb down the time stream all we can do is sit back and wait."
"And how long before we know if we were successful?" Stuart asked.
"That we can't know for sure," said Tony. "Theoretically, it should be nearly instantaneous. Any change in the past would normally alter the future – our present – to whatever those changes are. But since we're essentially outside the normal time stream it might take some time for the time line to reassert itself. But we have no way of knowing how long that could be."
"So if everything goes as planned, what you're saying is that once the accelerator is activated and the bomb is sent into the time stream, we'll either cease to exist or everything will be returned to normal."
"That's what we're hoping for," said Sam. "For obvious reasons, Ziggy will handle the entire procedure. Everything will have to be done within a split second and the time it takes to transfer control to her or even tell her when to do what she has to do could mean the difference between success and failure. I'll instruct her to activate the accelerator and then all we can do is wait."
"And hope we're still around when it's over," said Bill.
"Well, if it doesn't work," said Tony, "we'll never know it."
"I guess there's no sense in waiting," said Bill. "Everything we've worked for has come down to this moment. Sam, instruct Ziggy to activate the accelerator."
Sam pressed a button on the console in front of him. "Ziggy."
"Yes, Sam."
"I've programmed you with all the information we have. And with the procedure that you're about to undertake. I'd like you to activate the quantum leap accelerator and send the bomb into the time stream."
"Very well, Sam. And I'd just like to say it was nice working with you again. With all of you. I hope we're all here afterwards to continue working together."
"So do I, Ziggy."
"I never get over how human she seems," said Samantha. "Almost as if she were an actual, living person."
"In many ways she is," said Sam. "I designed her to be as close to human as possible. She doesn't actually have any emotions but you'd never know it from the way she interacts with people. She can be quite convincing."
"So we've learned," said Doug. "And her superior attitude can be very irritating."
"Yeah, I'm not really sure where she picked that up from. She is designed to make judgments based on the data she has available. I guess she just figures she is superior since she knows more than any human that's ever lived."
"Well I can live with that," said Samantha. "Assuming this works and we're still here once the bomb goes off."
"Sam," said Ziggy. "The quantum leap accelerator is charged. I'm about to activate it and send the bomb down the time line just as you instructed."
"Okay. No sense waiting. Activate the acceleration, Ziggy."
"Activating the accelerator in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. The quantum leap accelerator has been activated. The bomb will be launched within twelve seconds."
Everyone sat and waited with bated breath wondering what would happen. And if they would ever know it.
Sam opened his eyes and looked around. He was still sitting at the table in the conference room as were the rest of the people gathered there. He felt as if he had just awakened from a long sleep but didn't remember falling asleep. He looked at each of the other individuals and they all appeared to have looks of confusion on their faces.
"What happened?" Bill asked. "I feel like I just woke up."
"So do I," said Sam. "It appears that we are all suffering from the same phenomena although I have no idea what that is. Ziggy. Are you still there?"
"Of course, Sam."
"Ziggy, what happened?"
"I can't be sure with any degree of certainty. I detected the detonation of the bomb and immediately shut down the temporal generator as you instructed. My self-diagnostic programs indicate that I suffered a main power interruption for a period of .127 seconds. I am in a quandary as to why I'm still online. Any interruption of my main power supply should have caused my auxiliary power supply to activate automatically. But my auxiliary power supply has not been activated. And without a power supply it should have been necessary for you to reboot me although I have no record of such a reboot.
"I am also detecting a massive explosion that is not indicated in the original timeline," continued Ziggy. "According to my information the explosion occurred at 60°55′ north longitude, 101°57′ east latitude in the Eastern Siberian Taiga area in Russia. And it appears the explosion occurred on June 30, 1908. Analysis indicates the explosion flattened approximately 770 square miles of forest area. It would appear it was a largely uninhabited area and I am not detecting any human casualties."
"Those are the exact coordinates of the Tunguska explosion we discussed earlier," said Samantha. "The one that's mystified the science community for decades."
"The results of the explosion have been common knowledge," replied Ziggy. "However, the cause of the explosion has never been explained. As you are aware, I am able to track the timeline. I am not tracking an explosion in that area that was not present previously."
"It must have worked," said Tony. "When Ziggy shut down the quantum temporal generator the antineutrino stream would have ceased. The barrier in the timeline would have immediately engulfed the entire complex."
"But you said if that happened we'd all cease to exist," Bill said. "Why are we still here?"
"Because the bomb would have dissipated the barrier," said Sam. "Once the barrier was dissipated the timeline would have reasserted itself. I think for that .127 seconds that Ziggy experienced a power interruption she didn't exist. Neither did any of us or this complex. But when the time line reasserted itself we all returned to normal."
"There's one way to find out," said Samantha.
The entire group followed her to the observation room on the topmost level of the complex. As they walked out onto the balcony they all saw a clear blue sky with several clouds drifting lazily above. As far as they could see was the desert that surrounded the complex. In the distance the sun could be seen at nearly its zenith position indicating it was nearly noon. Several birds flew in the distance. From all appearances, it appeared to be a normal day.
"It did work," said Doug. "The barrier was destroyed and the time line has been restored. And with the antineutrino stream shut down there shouldn't be any danger of creating another barrier. It seems we were successful."
"Let's not jump to conclusions," said Samantha. "While I'll admit it does appear the time line has been restored, we don't know what kinds of repercussions the neutron bomb might have had detonating in the time stream like that. I need to get to the lab and look over the data we have there. All of our instruments were recording when we set off the bomb. There should be a great deal of data to go over."
"I'll help you," said Doug. "Hopefully we'll have some answers within a few hours."
"Well, it appears your idea worked," said Tony patting Sam on the back.
"Everybody helped," said Sam. "I couldn't have done it by myself. And at least we don't have to worry about bouncing around in time again. Maybe man wasn't designed to travel in time. Every time we've tried the results have been disastrous. Maybe it's time we forget about visiting other time periods for good. Concentrate our efforts somewhere else."
"I would tend to agree with you," said Tony. "Before they retrieved us I had given up on ever getting home. I had resigned myself to bouncing from one time to another for the rest of my life. Now that I'm back I'm not in such a hurry to go traipsing through time again."
"Well with the time line restored we have all the time in the world to think of something else to do. Let's go see if we can help Samantha and Doug. The sooner we know where we stand the sooner we can begin to concentrate our efforts in a direction that will actually help mankind."
It took several days for the group to analyze all the data they had collected. There was so much data that it would take them years to analyze all of it but they had been able to analyze enough to identify what the time line now looked like. The news was both good and bad. Samantha had been able to prepare a visual representation of the time line. Or rather time lines. On a computer screen there were several lines each of a different color.
"The green one is the original time line," she explained. "Since we were effectively outside the time line our records essentially remained unaltered. As you can see the green line is a straight line with no deviations. This is what the time line looked like originally. Before Sam started leaping through time.
"The blue line," she indicated a line that was wavy like the screen of an oscilloscope, "as you can see from the representation varies somewhat from the original time line. But it essentially follows the same path. The highs and lows of the line indicate areas where Sam was able to alter history, setting right what once went wrong, I believe is the way you phrased it. As far as we can determine this is the time line that occurred before the accident."
She then brought up a red line. This one was much different from the other two. It looked to Sam like the printout of an EKG with varying degrees of high and low points much more pronounced than the previous blue line.
"This is a representation of the time line as it is now. As you can see, there have been a lot of changes from the original time line. The high and low points indicate major historical events that have been altered from the original time line. While history has been restored it's a very drastic history from what we all know. And there's no way to predict how the culmination of those changes have affected the time line at this point."
"What caused the alterations?" Tony asked.
"Ziggy has theorized that when the neutron bomb detonated, it wasn't at the optimal location. It was as close as we could get it but there was just no way to know determine the exact location it needed to be at. The explosion resulted in numerous ruptures in the time line that altered certain events at those ruptures. Those alterations affected events that changed from the original time line and resulted in major historical events transpiring in a way they hadn't before.
"We've already identified several of the changes. For example, one alteration prevented Julius Caesar from attempting to address the Roman Senate on March 15, 44 B.C. He was never assassinated and continued to rule Rome until his death, which of course altered events after that. Another alteration was the death of Susan Catherine Koerner as a small child. Koerner was the mother of Orville and Wilbur Wright. With her death they were never born and the invention of the first successful airplane was delayed by decades."
"How many alterations are there?" Sam asked.
"It's impossible to tell. Each alteration affects events after it. We've already identified dozens of them and each one of those seems to be spawning others. We could easily end up with thousands of alterations to the time line. Maybe more. The time line is still in a state of flux, so to speak, and until it settles into a permanent state there's no way to determine just how many changes have occurred."
"What can we do about it?" Doug asked.
"I honestly don't know," said Samantha. "It should be possible to go back and correct individual changes which theoretically should set the time line correct from that point forward. But that won't affect the other changes caused by the bomb. There's no single fix for this. And since we can't even attempt to send someone back in time without risking losing them as we did the three of you, I have no idea what we can do to fix it."
"So we're stuck with the time line as it is now," said Tony. "Well, at least we're not in imminent danger of just disappearing. That should give us some time to figure out another solution."
"Except as I said, there's no way of knowing how all these alterations have affected our time line. It's very possible that with all the changes, some or all of us don't even exist in this time line. The temporal generator is still running which is effectively keeping us outside the current time line. But it's a very real possibility that if any of us step outside the protective bubble we'll just cease to exist. For all intents and purposes we're trapped inside this complex just as we were before."
"And eventually our supplies will run out and we'll have a malfunction in the temporal generator," said Sam. "If that happens the protective bubble will collapse and anyone who doesn't exist in this time line will simply vanish. And our only option is one we don't dare try."