EIGHT

It had been several weeks since those at the complex had been able to restore the time line. With the restoration all of the levels to the complex had been restored, along with the people who worked there. Over 1,000 people worked at the complex and many of the lower levels were dedicated to storage, giving them enough supplies to last for several years.

In addition they had been able to build a second temporal generator to alleviate the problem that the one they were using might malfunction. Changing over to the new generator had been a simple matter and everyone rested easier knowing there was less of a chance of a malfunction with a new generator. With the new generator in place they immediately began to refurbish the old one as a backup.

Sam, Tony, Doug, and Samantha continued to work on the problem of correcting the changes in the time line. Nothing they came up with seemed to be useful. It all came down to one option: someone had to return to the past and make sure that the changes didn't happen. But none of them felt that was a viable option. Anyone who traveled to the past risked being lost as the others had been.

Sam had eventually given up of ever solving the problem. He continued to explore any ideas he or the others came up with but he was beginning to think there was no solution to the problem. One of the reasons he continued to work on the problem was that there was precious little to do in the complex. They couldn't very well go "out on the town", as it were. Leaving the complex could be a virtual death sentence since they couldn't know for sure who existed in the altered time line. And being outside the time line they didn't receive any radio or television signals. There was a library and a recreation room but for the most part the inhabitants were left to their own devices when they weren't working.

Sam was currently sitting in the cafeteria going over the latest ideas they were working on. They were quickly running out of ideas and some of the ones they had come up with in recent days were rather far-fetched. But Sam felt they had to explore all possibilities even ones that seemed ludicrous.

"May we join you?"

Sam looked up to see Samantha walking up to his table carrying a briefcase. With her was one of the technicians Sam had met at the complex. When the entire "world" consisted of only about 1,000 people it wasn't hard to meet everyone at some point. This technician was Jeremy Crippen, one of the senior computer programmers at the complex.

"Please. Just looking over some data."

"Any luck?" Samantha asked, with a strange smile on her face.

"All bad," replied Sam. "There doesn't seem to be anyway to change things without the very real possibility of making them worse. "

"Well," said Samantha, glancing at Jeremy, "I assume you've met Jeremy."

"Of course. You're responsible for programming the data into Ziggy that we come up with."

"Yes… Yes, sir," replied Jeremy nervously. "Dr. Thomas, I'm not sure this is such a good idea."

"Just relax, Jeremy. Sam, Jeremy was telling me an interesting idea he had. One that I think bears examining. You did say you'd be willing to listen to any ideas anyone had."

"Of course," Sam said. "I'm all ears."

"I beg your pardon?" Jeremy asked confusion in his voice.

"Just an expression from my time," Sam replied. "It means I'll listen to anything you have to say."

"Oh, okay."

"Now, Jeremy. Tell Sam what you were telling me a little while ago. Start from the beginning so he can understand exactly what it is you have in mind."

"Well," said Jeremy hesitantly, "I overheard Drs. Newman and Phillips discussing the problem you've been having with the fractured time line. I mean we all know what happened. There just weren't a lot of details, that's all. Anyway, what I overheard reminded me of some of the movies I used to watch as a kid."

"Movies?" questioned Sam.

"Yes. I've always been a science fiction fan. As I'm sure you can imagine when I got the opportunity to work on this project I jumped at it. And when I found out they were going to be able to retrieve you I was really elated. I've always admired you, Dr. Beckett. I've read everything ever printed about you and everything you ever published that I could get my hands on."

"Not sure I've ever had a groupie before," said Sam, smiling sarcastically. "But I appreciate the compliment."

"Yes, well, as I said, I've always been a real big fan of science fiction, especially time travel. It just fascinates me the theories and ideas that a lot of those movies come up with. About changing time and altering the past and things like that."

"Well now you know what can really happen when you go messing around in the past."

"Yeah, I do. As I was telling Dr. Thomas, when I program information into Ziggy there's a visual interpretation of that information that I get on my computer monitor. I've written a couple of programs that helps me to correlate all the data and make sure it's all synced up properly before I actually input the information. To make sure she gets the right information."

"Sounds like a very logical precaution," said Sam. "But Ziggy is quite capable of doing that herself."

"I'm aware of that. I just want to make sure I don't make any mistakes. So far it's worked out pretty well."

"I'm sorry," Sam said. "I find this all very interesting but I really don't see how it helps with our current problem."

"He's getting to that," said Samantha. "Go on, Jeremy. Tell Sam about your observations."

"Well," Jeremy continued hesitantly, "after I overheard Drs. Newman and Phillips talking, it occurred to me that maybe you could approach the problem from a different angle. So I ran some theoretical programs. About your travels through time as well as those of Drs. Newman and Phillips. And something occurred to me. The visual representation I got on my monitor reminded me of something."

"Reminded you of what?"

"A vapor trail."

"Vapor trail?" Sam asked not know exactly what he was referring to.

"Yes, a vapor trail. You know the kind that jets can leave when they're flying high up in the atmosphere? It looks like a long, thin cloud trailing behind the jet."

"Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. It eventually dissipates away."

"That's right. And what I discovered was that your quantum signature, and those of Drs. Newman and Phillips, reacted the same way. Over time, if you'll pardon the expression, your quantum trails gradually dissipate and eventually disappear altogether. According to my calculations, now that none of you are bouncing around in time, those quantum trails should eventually disappear altogether."

"Well, that makes sense. A quantum vapor trail? I have to say I never really thought about it in those terms before."

"Well that got me to thinking," continued Jeremy. "The vapor trail of a jet is basically condensation. Now when the vapor trail is left by the passing jet, it necessarily displaces the air behind the jet. Depending on a number of factors it can be invisible, last for only a few seconds, or it can even last for hours and spread out to be several miles wide. That's a lot of displaced air."

"Of course," said Sam. "Like putting a large object into a tank of water. When the object sinks into the water it displaces the water pushing it outwards. If the tank is large enough the displaced water simply spreads out with little noticeable effect."

"That's right. Well, I was wondering about your quantum vapor trail. Since you were travelling in the time line, it stands to reason that you weren't exactly displacing air or water. You would be displacing the points of the time line that your trail was in. Pushing it outwards, so to speak."

"I see what you're saying. I never considered that before. Maybe that's why they couldn't retrieve me at Project: Quantum Leap. The displaced time line would have been just enough out of position that my signal would be distorted. Like looking at a night sky but only being able to see certain stars out of the corner of your eye. When you try to look at them directly they seem to disappear."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. So I ran some simulations and I discovered something. It wasn't really you bouncing around in time that was the problem. It was your quantum vapor trail. They could get a lock on you because they could follow the trail to your location. But it was slightly out of phase, if you'll forgive the expression. Enough to know where you were and what you were doing but not enough to pull you back."

"Like trying to read a book that was slightly out of focus," said Sam. "The larger letters: the titles of chapters and whatnot: would be clear enough to tell me what the book was about. But the smaller print would be illegible so I couldn't actually read it."

"Something like that. Without the vapor trail there wouldn't be any distortion. Or at least minimal distortion that wouldn't affect the time line around you."

"We also wouldn't be able to tell where the traveller was or what they were doing. And most likely we wouldn't be able to retrieve them since we would have no idea where in time they might be."

"What if you didn't have to?" asked Jeremy, his excitement building. Samantha just sat listening to the two with a strange smile on her face.

"I don't follow," Sam said.

"What if the traveller had the ability to move himself or herself through time? Say a device they carried with them that allows them to program in when and where they want to go. The vapor trail we've been discussing is the link that anchors them to their point of origin allowing the people there to retrieve them when they want. Or at least that's my understanding of what it was supposed to be. Only it was this very link that caused all the problems."

"So instead of a vapor trail left behind our hypothetical jet, it would act more like a boat. Maybe displacing the water around it and leaving only a wake behind it."

"Which would very quickly disappear as the water, or in this case the time line, rushes in to fill the void left by the wake. The displaced time line's effect would be negligible at best and may not even have any noticeable effect on the rest of the time line. It should be possible to send someone to any point in time without causing any further disruptions."

"Well, it's an intriguing theory. The problem is the power consumption by the equipment needed to move someone through time is enormous. No one could carry a power source that large. Not to mention all the necessary calculations to make sure you ended up where you wanted to go instead of hundreds or thousands of miles away and Lord only knows how many years from your chosen destination."

"Sam," said Samantha, "there's a lot about this complex you haven't learned yet. We've come a long way in a lot of areas. Like power sources." She removed an object from her briefcase and sat it on the table. The object was rectangular and about the size of a loaf of bread. "This is the power core for one of our reactors. The ones that run this place on a daily basis. This one shorted out when we sent the bomb down the time line. Basically it's useless now since it's effectively been drained of all power. But this one core can produce the equivalent amount of power as one of the old nuclear reactors did in your time."

"That can produce the energy output of a nuclear reactor?" questioned Sam, hardly believing that such a small device was capable of producing so much energy."

"That's right," said Samantha. "And it could easily be modified for the type of portable device Jeremy has described."

"Well there's still the matter of the program to run the device and all the calculations needed to make sure you end up where you wanted to go. I know computers are a lot more sophisticated than they were in my time but the hard drive space needed to contain all that information…."

"Is not a problem," Jeremy finished. He pulled a small rectangular device out of his pocket and laid it on the table. It was only about two inches long and about half an inch wide. "This is a memory stick; a portable hard drive if you will. We use it to transfer information between computers that aren't connected to the mainframe."

"I've read about these," said Sam, picking up the stick and looking it over. "They used to be called flash drives."

"That's right. That one stick is capable of holding 500,000 terabytes of information. And it's not even the biggest one we've got. We've got memory sticks that will hold as much as 5 petabytes of information. We could easily put a program on one of these that could operate the device as effectively as any of the previous projects did without the danger of disrupting the time line or losing the traveller."

"You'd also have to program in all of the known history into it. History as it's supposed to be. So that the traveller would know what was changed and what needed to be corrected. I'm not sure even a 5 petabyte memory would be capable of holding that much information."

"I would tend to agree with you," said Jeremy. "But what if we had more than one device? Programmed for a specific span of years? For the sake of argument, say one was programmed from the year 1900 to the year 2000? That would limit what information we would have to put in the memory. The traveller could also be provided with a sort of guide book of the events of that time span so they'll know what was changed. With a portable device like the one I've described the traveller could leap, or jump, to a time when history was altered, figure out what had changed, then jump back to when the change occurred and correct it."

"If they could correct it. There may not be anything they can do to set things right."

"There's always that chance, no matter what we eventually come up with," said Samantha. "For all we know there's no way to set history right again. But I think this has a very good shot at doing that. At least it's a chance with only a minimal chance of further disrupting the time line."

"There's still the problem of someone going back," said Sam. "Whoever we send back could simply cease to exist once they've moved through time. If, in the new time line, they were never born, moving outside of the complex could effectively cause them to simply vanish."

"Theoretically," said Samantha, "if someone were to go back to a time before they were born, it shouldn't affect them. You were born on August 8, 1953. If you went back to a time before that date then technically you wouldn't exist. The altered time line shouldn't affect you. It would work the same way with whomever we send back.

"Theoretically," repeated Sam. "You know as well as I do that not all theories work out as you expect them to."

"True. But you also know that the only way to prove or disprove a theory is to test it. I'll admit it's a gamble. But science has always been a gamble. And I think Jeremy's idea has a very good chance of succeeding. It's better than anything you or Tony or Doug have come up with. I think it's worth the risk."

Sam sat at the table turning the memory stick over in his hand. What Jeremy was proposing had a very good chance of working. If they could actually come up with a device that worked the way he had described. It would have to be compact so it wouldn't draw undue attention to it or the traveller. And it would require a knowledge of the time period the traveller would be visiting. So they would blend in with their surroundings.

"How large would the device be?" Sam asked finally.

"That's hard to say at this point," said Jeremy. "It would depend on the amount of information we could get on one of the memory sticks. And just how large the power supply would have to be to power the device. The interface would have to be large enough for someone to be able to read it and manipulate it easily."

"Let's work on one problem at a time," said Sam. "Your idea is very intriguing and could possibly have some merit. I'll need to discuss it with Doug and Tony. How long do you think it would take you to have a prototype of the device you described ready for testing?"

"I'm not real sure," said Jeremy. "There are some aspects of the device that I'm not qualified to work on. Like the power supply. I'm a good computer tech. But I'm not real good with power supplies."

"I'm already working on putting together a team to work on the project," said Samantha. "Everyone will be working on a specific aspect of the device."

"You seemed to think I was going to go along with this idea," Sam said, smiling slightly at his great granddaughter.

"I knew you'd see the merit in it. Besides, you keep saying we have to consider all options. I thought this one was worth exploring."

"I agree," replied Sam. "Jeremy, since it was your idea why don't you oversee the project? Let us know when you have a prototype ready for testing."

"Me? You want me to be in charge? I'm just a technician. I've never been in charge of anything before."

"It was your idea," said Sam. "And I think you're the best one to get everything worked out."

"I agree," said Samantha. "The rest of us can work on other ideas while you're working on this."

"Well," said Jeremy hesitantly, "I'll do my best."

"That's all anyone can ask," said Sam. "Let us know when you're finished."

"And I'll talk to Bill and make sure you have everything you need for the project," said Samantha. "Just let me know what you need and I'll do my best to get it for you."

"Okay," said Jeremy. "It could take a while. There are a lot of specifics to work out. It's not going to happen right away."

"We're away of that," said Sam. "Don't worry about how long it takes. Be concerned with getting it right."

"Guess I should get started," said Jeremy. "There's a lot of work to get done."

The three let the cafeteria and for the first time Sam thought they might actually have the beginnings to a solution for their problem.