The Didymus Contingency Read online

  Tom scurried toward Sally from behind, a nervous David in tow.

  “You watch,” Tom whispered to David, “She has eyes in the back of her head.”

  “Shush!” David urged, not wanting to be berated first thing in the morning, “She’ll hear you!”

  Tom replied by pointing to his eyes with his index and middle fingers and then at the back of Sally’s head, reiterating his statement in pseudo sign language. David widened his eyes back at Tom as a final warning.

  “Dr. Greenbaum. Dr. Goodman. You’re both late,” Sally said without looking back.

  Tom, in his best sideways sotto voce whisper, said, “I told you.”

  In a swift move, Sally spun one hundred and eighty degrees on her high heels so she instantly faced Tom and David, who quickly morphed their expressions into sweet smiles.

  “Miss McField.” David greeted her with a kind voice, as he raised his hand to shake hers.

  “Sally,” said Tom with a wry smile, “so good to see you again.”

  Sally ignored David’s extended hand and got right down to business, “It won’t be if I don’t see some results by the end of the day. To put it mildly, doctors, impress my ass off or I pull the plug.”

  Tom’s button was instantly pushed, but before he could unleash his fury, David interjected as diplomatically as he could muster, “Miss McField…today you will witness something we cannot yet explain. It will, in seconds, change the course of human history, or more accurately, human future. I assure you—”

  “Tom might enjoy your speeches, David, but they don’t impress me,” Sally said. “All I care about is results. We’ve had you two bottled down here for years. It’s about time we saw something for it.”

  David’s blood pressure rose to terminal levels, but he managed to contain his personal meltdown, “You will, Miss McField. Soon enough.”

  “I better,” Sally said, as she used the same high heel pivot maneuver to spin and strut away.

  David stared at Sally, throwing imaginary grenades at her head. In his blind anger, he let slip a simple word that instantly changed Tom’s mood from rage to pure glee, “Witch.”

  Tom’s eyes nearly launched from their sockets, “W—what did you say?”

  David scrunched his face. “What?”

  “You called her a bitch!” Tom said with a grin.

  “I absolutely did not!”

  “I heard you!”

  David huffed. “I said, ‘witch,’ with a W.”

  Tom’s smile faded, but not completely. “Ah, one of your religious curse replacements. Fudge, shoot, gosh darnit, Jiminy Cricket. It’s all the same, you know. You still mean the curse, even if you don’t say the actual word. Changing bitch to witch might alter the sound, but the emotion behind it is still the same.”

  David and Tom stared into each other’s eyes. Tom knew his constant gaze and slight smirk would eventually wear David down.

  “Bah! No one’s perfect!” David said as he stormed away, “We have work to do!”

  Tom laughed and followed after his friend, thinking that maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad day after all.

  * * * * *

  An hour passed before David was calm again. Tom knew Sally could get under David’s skin like no one else, which made him wonder why David looked at her the way he did. He’d been watching David attempting to write out some calculations for the past half hour. But every time Sally walked by, it was as if she were a magnet and David’s face was made of metal. His head would follow her across the room and then linger as she disappeared from view. Could he be interested in such an ice queen? Did David see something in her that Tom couldn’t? Tom decided to discover the answers to these questions, but right now, there were more pressing matters demanding his attention.

  A slew of scientists sat behind the myriad of consoles that filled the control center. The place smelled of warm computers. The excitement in the room was nearly uncontainable. Every member of the science team, led by Tom and David, had dreamed of this moment for years. Some spent their entire careers at LightTech for the slim chance they would succeed.

  David, Tom and Sally stood in front of the glass wall, peering into Receiving Area Alpha. The room was smooth from top to bottom; not one ninety-degree angle could be seen. The walls were brushed silver, like a giant frying pan. The massive sheet of glass separating the control center and the receiving area made the whole scene feel like an oversized children’s aquarium. Tom’s eyes eagerly searched for something, any anomaly that would suggest a breach in the time stream had occurred.

  Sally looked at her watch, “By my time we should see something in forty-five seconds. Not that I really expect to see your entire future life’s work suddenly appear.”

  “If we succeed within our lifetimes, we’ll see something. Even if it’s just a fluctuation,” Tom added.

  “Then I don’t expect we’ll see much because if my future self is anything like my present self, she will have pulled the plug on this little—”

  Tom interrupted, “Hey, that’s not—”

  “Quiet!” David yelled, “Both of you! All this talk, this bickering, it’s all pointless! In ten seconds, our world will change forever and all you two can do is nag each other. Please…for the love of Moses, just shut up!”

  “For the love of Moses?” Tom said with a raised eyebrow. “Really?”

  Sally’s reaction caught both David and Tom by surprise. A smile cracked onto her face, if only for a moment, before she smothered it and began waiting patiently as David had demanded.

  Tom glanced away from the receiving area and saw David eyeing Sally, inspecting her soft lips for any sign of the smile’s return. He imagined David was even more shocked by the emergence of Sally’s smile, especially at a tense time like this. But it wasn’t important now and Tom certainly wouldn’t let David miss a second of what they hoped would happen next.

  “David,” Tom whispered.

  David jerked his eyes toward Tom, who motioned with his head for David to look at the receiving area.

  “Right.” David turned toward the wall of glass.

  Tom shook his head. What was with him?

  Silence consumed the room. Tom glanced at his watch. Five seconds overdue. Tom closed his eyes and lowered his head in disappointment. They were defeated.

  David’s fingers tapped against the thick glass, expelling his nervous energy. Sally crossed her arms and tapped her foot. Ten seconds late… This was not good.

  A sound like the popping of popcorn began to fill the air. Something was happening. Scientists around the room began checking their equipment, recording the sound and preparing for more. The sound grew louder, crackling through the thick glass, and causing the control center to shake. A metal cabinet at the back of the room popped open and its contents crashed to the floor. There was a flash of light inside the receiving area and then everything went black.

  After a moment of silence passed, the room erupted with cheering. Tom looked at David, and their eyes were wide. “Not quite what I expected, but a good turnout nonetheless,” David said with a tinge of disappointment.

  “I expected more of us too,” Tom replied.

  They shook hands as Sally approached in the darkness. “Congratulations. Your funding will be doubled.”

  As Sally spoke, she failed to notice the light level in the room was rising. Blue light slowly lit up the room, glowing on Sally’s face. David and Tom noticed right away. With wide eyes, they stared just beyond Sally, into the receiving area.

  “But we better get a little more then a light show next time...” Sally noticed their fixed gazes.

  She followed their eyes back to the receiving area, which was glowing with a dull blue light, luminescing from nowhere at all.

  The control center fell silent again. Scientists frozen in mid-hug watched the receiving area with beaming eyes.

  Tom lifted his head and rested his hands on the glass wall. His jaw slowly dropped open like a drawbridge. “It’s happening,” wa
s all he could say.

  A small, white shimmer appeared inside the receiving area. The light glowed steadily at first, but then began to fluctuate. It strobed slowly and with each burst of light came a loud, bassy Whump.

  Whump… Whump… Whump.

  Faster and faster. Light swirled and flashed like at a rave nightclub.

  Whum. Whum. Whum. Whum. Crack!

  Several brilliant, vertical streaks of blue and white light ripped into the air within the receiving area, creating thunderous booms. One after another, cracks of light tore into reality and then disappeared. In the wake of each spear of light, an object was left behind. A table covered in diagrams, charts and graphs, a cabinet full of supplies and tools that had yet to be invented, and several countertops covered in small devices. Several large chunks of electronic equipment also appeared. An ozone-like odor filled the room and grew stronger with each explosion of light and materials.

  The raw power unleashed by the event was both fascinating and horrifying. Everyone in the room, except Tom and David, took a step back. Computers began to malfunction. Sparks exploded into the air. No one noticed. All eyes were transfixed on the tears in time-space opening up in the next room.

  The show concluded with a loud boom, causing everyone in the control center to jump. As the final streak of light blinked out of existence, the control center was plunged into darkness. The receiving area still shimmered with light, like a luminous snowstorm, as thousands of blue, glowing particles fluttered down to the floor. No one moved. As the last particles extinguished, the emergency lights suddenly burst on. David yelped like a Chihuahua. The room full of normally composed professionals exploded with clapping and uproarious laughter.

  Tom’s hands squeaked down the glass wall. He looked at David. “We did it… We did it!” Tom yelled, as he picked David up off the ground and administered a crushing hug.

  “What did I tell you!” David shouted, “What did I tell you!”

  Tom bounced David in the air and danced around like a child on Christmas morning. Sally stood still, staring into the receiving area. “I don’t… I can’t…”

  Tom put David back on his feet, strode up to Sally’s face and yelled at the top of his lungs, “HA!”

  After Tom had expressed his victory to Sally and moved on to shake the hands of several excited colleagues, David approached Sally with a smile. “Thank you for letting this happen. We owe you everything.”

  “I… You’re welcome.” Sally replied.

  David extended his hand and Sally took it. Rather then shaking her hand, David let their hands linger together, while he looked kindly into her eyes. And then she did it again: Sally smiled.

  —THREE—

  Teetering

  2005

  7:00 P.M.

  Arizona

  Tom and David gleefully spent the next eleven hours sorting through piles of documentation, equipment and tools that had been sent back in time from their future selves. The idea that this could work originated from David’s brilliant mind, but was quickly supported by Tom when they first met. David grew skeptical of Tom’s motivation after learning about Megan’s untimely and violent death. But Tom had assured David endlessly that if success came within their lifetimes, he would not try to alter his tragic past. Tom knew that doing so would mean he and David would never meet. Having never met, any success they would experience in the realm of time travel would cease to exist, meaning Tom couldn’t go back in time in the first place. This was only one of the many theoretical paradoxes of time travel, which they now faced in the futuristic items laid out around the room.

  David rubbed his weary eyes and continued on, driving his thoughts into a particular schematic that diagramed how one might navigate through the time stream without creating a cosmic wake. David’s mind wrapped itself within the blanket of the schematic’s quantum calculations. His eyes twitched back and forth, as he sucked up the information like a computerized leech. Then, an epiphany, “Look! Look!” he yelled, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

  Tom looked up from fiddling with a silver watch. “How do you know you thought of it at all?” Tom asked and went back to exploring the contours of the watch.

  David crinkled his forehead. He began, “Well, I started working on—”

  But Tom cut him off with a question of his own “Why did we send back watches?” Ten watches were lined up on the table next to Tom, but before the issue could be further addressed, Tom asked another question, “Whose handwriting?”

  David grew confused, “What?”

  Tom answered, not looking up from the watch, “Whose handwriting is on the schematic?”

  “What are you talking about? I don’t know,” David replied, with a tinge of impatience.

  “Well, look,” Tom said.

  David begrudgingly held up the schematic and inspected the handwriting. As David continued his detective work, Tom puzzled over the watches, “There are ten of these watches. All the same.”

  David placed the schematic on a table and moved it nonchalantly aside. Tom never looked up. Thinking he got away with his sleight of hand, David relaxed and attempted to steer the conversation further in the direction it was already headed. “Here, let me have a look,” David said as he reached for the watch in Tom’s hand.

  Tom pulled the watch out of David’s range and asked, “Whose handwriting? Yours or mine?”

  “Ugh, just give me the watch,” David pleaded.

  “Tell me.”

  An agonizing moment passed. Agonizing for David at least. It was sheer pleasure on Tom’s part.

  “Yours,” David conceded.

  Tom smiled smugly and handed the watch over. David snatched it away quickly, eager to move on to more productive topics.

  The watch face was silver, lined with what David thought must be gold. Could these be gifts celebrating their success? Not likely, David surmised as he looked at the lines of small buttons, tracing each side of the watch with his index finger. In all, he found eight buttons. The diamond quartz display showed the time, which was wrong, but left plenty of room for several other sets of information—numbers, codes, percentages—to be viewed. What are these watches for?

  David found the chance to recover from the schematic fiasco. “It’s digital,” David said, “So you’ll be able to read it.”

  Tom feigned a laugh as David continued, “I don’t know what it’s for, but the time is wrong.”

  “I’ll fix it,” Tom said as he snatched the watch from David’s hands.

  “Hey!” David blurted, as he attempted to recover the watch from Tom, who made a hasty retreat.

  Tom stopped and pushed several buttons. “Okay, here we go,” Tom said with confidence, as he sat in a smooth, metal chair.

  As Tom worked the buttons, both men leaned in close to see what was happening to the watch face. The screen displayed several sets of numbers, the meaning of which Tom and David could not fully grasp. Losing patience, Tom pushed the buttons at an ever-increasing rate until one finger landed on a button that had yet to be depressed.

  Nanoseconds later, a crackling noise filled the air around them. With no visible source for the audible emanations, both men looked around in confusion. The noise grew louder and then, both men recognized it. Their eyes met.

  Between their faces, a small light began to pulsate. It started again…

  Whum... Whum... Whum… WhumWhumWhumWhum.

  The pair’s eyes widened and they dove apart in separate directions. David ducked behind a trash barrel while Tom overturned a table, sending stacks of diagrams to the floor, and dove behind it.

  “What’s happening?” David shouted.

  “How should I know?”

  “Look!”

  “You look!”

  David peeked up over the barrel. The intense flashing light sent him back down. His mind scrambled for answers.

  “We triggered another time event,” whispered David to himself.

  A thought struck David and h
e yelled over the increasing noise, “The watches… They’re the time devices. We triggered the event with the watch!”

  David was sure Tom couldn’t hear him over the noise and didn’t bother repeating himself. His eyebrows raised as a new realization reeled into his mind. Not only had they created a time travel device in the future, they had created several and they were portable!

  WhumWhumWhumCrack!

  Bright light flashed through the room as time and space exposed itself again.

  Boom!

  The chair ceased to exist and the light faded. Tom and David gradually peeked out from behind their hiding places. Only a handful of bright blue sparkles now floated to the floor where the single watch had fallen.

  Tom was the first to move, crawling out from behind the table. David followed, holding the trash barrel in front of him for protection. The two converged on the watch, where the chair once stood. Amazement was stretched across their faces as they stood over an area of the universe that had been torn apart by a device they created. A device that now lay at their feet. Both men fell to the floor, crying with laughter.

  * * * * *

  The smell of heavily buttered corn and five different kinds of barbequed meats lingered in the air. Peggy’s Porker Palace was the closest thing to a decent restaurant within one hundred square miles of the LightTech facility. That was Tom’s opinion anyway. Tom and David had become regulars at the “all you can eat” buffet. They were no longer distracted by the four hundred pound, gravy-loving, plaid-shirt wearing hicks who consumed entire tabletops worth of food in one sitting. Waitresses hustled back and forth from table to kitchen, carrying trays full of half gorged on food, repeating the cycle infinitely. Tom and David sat in a booth to the side of the action, bellies full from their celebration dinner.