“Safe yes, but it doesn’t contain the amount of power we need for a real test. That fuse box can’t handle the amount of power we need for a trip of any significance.”
“Based on my calculations, it was capable of providing the device with enough power for a jump of nearly six months.”
“Our first trip was supposed to take us twenty minutes into the past but instead we only traveled a little more than five. Your calculations were wrong.”
Jason didn’t argue. He’d spent the previous night wide awake, contemplating not only the clothing issue but his error in timing as well. Derek was right. There had been a serious miscalculation between the time he’d expected them to arrive and the brief step back that they’d actually taken.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Derek assured his visibly bothered friend. “The miscalculation didn’t come from your program, at least not your part of it. The power estimates I gave you were embarrassingly inaccurate. I blame myself.”
“Then so do I,” Jason agreed with a smile.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“There isn’t enough power in any typical electrical panel for us to make any significant jump. We need a larger source if we’re going to test this thing’s real potential,” Derek motioned to the briefcase in the backseat.
Jason had insisted on strapping the device in like it was their own little, scientific love child.
“Derek, the further back we go the greater the risk of miscalculating the arrival point, not to mention the countless unknown risks such as other people or objects occupying the space. We could instantaneously become—”
“—Become fused to the other person or object like Siamese twins,” Derek finished the familiar warning.
“All I’m saying, is that we need to run more small scale tests before we risk too large a jump.”
Letting some of his frustration with his straight laced roommate finally seep out, “you need to loosen up a little, you know, let those balls of yours drop and take a risk every now and then”.
Jason didn’t know how to respond. He knew Derek was right. He did live his life by the rules. He never made a move without contemplating every potential consequence or calculating every possible outcome, but he didn’t like surprises. He didn’t like the uncertainty of the unknown, so a change in this behavior was unlikely.
“Sorry,” Derek, recognizing Jason's contemplative pause, quickly recanted. “All I mean is that you need to live life. You can’t always be concerned with what might happen. Sometimes you need to just take a chance and see what comes of it.”
“The last time I took a chance, what came of it was a night, followed by the remainder of high school, filled with ridicule as well as what I’m sure are dozens of photos of me and a dildo.”
Derek remained silent. He and Jason had never actually talked about the Jenna Bishop incident. He knew about the events of that night. There probably wasn’t a kid in their high school who didn't, past or present but the topic hadn’t actually come up between them before; likely due to Jason’s understandable embarrassment and his disinterest in causing any unnecessary pain.
“There’s no need to worry. I’ve found the perfect location,” Derek chose to change the subject instead of continuing down the current, uncomfortable path. “It was actually a place I looked into right after you’d come to me with what I, at the time, thought was a crazy idea.”
Jason shot Derek a surprised look. Derek had voiced his opinions regarding the likeliness of success before, but never had he called the project crazy.
Aware of his roommate’s stare, but keeping his eyes on the road ahead as they traveled further into the densely wooded area, “I had actually run all of the calculations in anticipation of maybe one day using the site to make a leap of unbelievable distances, you know, like the Middle Ages or Victorian times or something like that. I’d love to go back and pick DaVinci’s brain a while, you know? Unfortunately there would be no power source capable of allowing a safe return home, so I guess that would be a one way trip,” he paused to contemplate how he could have previously overlooked that bit of information. “Anyway, based on last night’s little experiment and my latest calculations, courtesy of a wasted hour in Professor Billcock’s class this morning, I’ve determined that there’s no power source in the world large enough to make possible a jump of that magnitude; not even a nuclear power plant could provide us with enough juice.”
"This news was a bit deflating," Jason thought. He too had dreamt of one day using the device to travel back to a time when dinosaurs had roamed the earth. His bedroom walls had been lined with posters of the magnificent beasts; hung in chronological order of each species' existence from the Triassic Period all the way to the moment of their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. He’d spent countless nights staring at the prehistoric animals lining his walls, wondering if scientific investigation had recreated the magnificent creatures accurately or if humanity’s need for exaggeration and grandeur had somehow skewed the reality of these grand giants. He wanted nothing more than to go back and see for himself but if what Derek was saying was accurate, and he was sure that it was, he would never get the chance to witness those long dreamt about creatures, thriving in their natural environment.
“By my calculations, I estimate that the largest jump we could possibly make would be approximately twenty-five years, give or take a month or two,” Derek continued, unaware of his passenger’s roaming thoughts.
Jason, still lost in thought, showed no reaction to the significantly shortened timeline.
“Did you hear what I said. The machine is only capable of a twenty-five year window.”
Reemerging from childhood memories to the reality of his suddenly shattered dreams, “Twenty five years?” Contemplating the shortened window, “We also have to take into account the factor of space and time,” he fully reengaged himself in the conversation. “Just because the device is capable of going back that far doesn’t mean that a landing spot is possible. If we max out the machine’s capabilities without taking all three planes of space into consideration, we could end up arriving in the middle of deep space and ultimately to our deaths.
“Always the optimist,” Derek joked at Jason’s consistent need to point out the worst of possible scenarios. “Don’t worry, I ran your space time calculation as well and I’ve determined that the furthest back we can go, based on available power sources and the earth’s orbital location, is May 22nd, 1991.”
“A few days after my birthday,” Jason added.
“That’s right.”
“How did you run my program from class this morning?” Jason questioned curiously. You didn’t take the device with you? Did you?”
“No. Of course not,” Derek laughed, surprised that Jason would even suggest such a thing.
“So how did you come up with 1991?”
“I...I sort of uploaded your program to my phone,” Derek admitted as he held his iPhone up, the simple looking program filling the screen.
“I didn’t realize we’d made it available on iTunes,” Jason joked.
“Yeah, I was just as surprised as you when I saw it advertised beside the 'Porntube' app."
“Well nothing beats good product placement.”
Smiling at his roommate’s uncharacteristic quick wit, Derek’s excitement at the pending trip grew.
“So, you still haven’t told me where we’re going yet,” Jason reminded him.
“I told you. The year of our birth, 1991,” Derek answered as he slowed the car, turning off of the paved road, onto a narrow dirt road that wandered even further into the dense woods.
“You’re not going to kill me are you,” Jason, taking a page from Derek's book of humor, commented on the remote nature of their destination.
“Kill you?” Derek laughed. “No, I’m not going to kill you, but that might if you’re not careful,” he motioned to their destination as the remote transformer yard came into view jus
t ahead.
“You’re going to tap into that?” Jason questioned, concern evident in his tone.
“Tap into? No, I’m going to harness the shit out of it,” Derek replied with a grin, knowing that his plan would likely knock out the power to nearly every home and business within a fifteen mile radius.
Jason looked at his friend’s wide grin with concern as Derek slowed the car, coming to a complete stop only ten feet from the large fenced facility.
“And how exactly do you propose we get in? I’m sure there’s security.”
“There is. Every inch of this facility is covered by at least one camera at all times,” Derek confirmed his roommate’s assumption. “Not to mention that the gate is not only magnetically locked but also equipped with security sensors that trigger the cameras to begin recording from the time that it’s opened until ten minutes after one of the hundred or so motion sensors on the property ceases to sense any signs of movement.
“So let me guess. You hacked into Mass. Electric and planted a virus that will allow you to temporarily disable their security systems and hence allow us to access the facility undetected.”
“No,” Derek laughed. “When have you ever known me to be the hacker type? I wouldn’t know the first thing about hacking into a utility company’s digital infrastructure, let alone how to write a program that could temporarily disable an entire security network.”
“Then how are we going to get in there without being seen?” Jason wondered aloud.
“With this.” Derek removed a single key from his pocket, holding the simple device of entry up for Jason to see.
“A key?” Jason questioned, surprised by the simplicity of the proposed solution.
“Not just any key. A key that I had copied during my internship with Mass. Electric last summer.”
Jason was impressed. He’d never doubted Derek’s intelligence, but at times he had questioned his commitment. Derek had always come across as the ‘whatever’s going to happen will be’ type and not one to plan things out in the long term, but seeing that key firmly grasped between his index finger and thumb, he now realized that he’d seriously underestimated his roommate’s commitment to the project. Derek had obviously been planning this moment for quite some time now, which somehow made him feel more at ease about the dangerous leap they were about the take. At the same time though, a key seemed too simple a solution for what sounded like such a sophisticated security system.
“You're telling me that the state’s largest electric company probably spent a small fortune to install a state of the art security system on this site and all that it takes is one key to get inside?” Jason questioned.
“That and the passcode that I got by making my boss, and I quote, ‘cum so hard that, not only her husband, but her vibrator as well would forever pale in comparison'.”
“There’s the Derek I know.”
“Thanks,” Derek’s grin widened at the perceived compliment. “Now come on,” he opened his door and excitedly jumped from the vehicle.
Jason watched as Derek almost skipped his way to the security gate, unable to conceal his excitement. “Here we go I guess,” he spoke as he opened his door and followed more cautiously.
*****
“You throw like a girl.”
“I am a girl,” Autumn Lively responded to her brother’s taunt as her first pitch bounced in front of the pizza box, currently standing in as home plate.
“You couldn’t hit it anyway!” Callie yelled from the other side of the large back yard.
“I think you should back up a bit more!” thirteen year old Jonathan yelled back at the mouthy outfielder as he took up position beside the pizza box one more time.
Grabbing another ball from the bucket beside her, Autumn stepped to the side of the stick that they’d placed in the grass as an impromptu mound, kicked her leg in the air and delivered the next pitch. This time the ball sailed from her grasp, passing over the cardboard plate and just under the bat of her overconfident brother.
Callie began laughing from the outfield. “See! I told you!”
“Shut up Callie!”
“Hey, don’t yell at my friend just because you suck!” Autumn scolded her embarrassed brother.
Jonathan didn’t say a thing. Instead, he retook his position alongside the plate, slamming the end of the bat into the box as he’d seen his major league idols do countless times. Autumn grabbed another ball from the bucket beside her, staring her brother down before winding up and releasing the ball with another girlish delivery. The ball sailed toward him. Intent on showing up the year older girl in the outfield, he focused all of his concentration on the spinning projectile hurdling toward him. Rearing back, in preparation for an all or nothing swing, he took one quick glance at the pretty redhead in the outfield. As much as he wanted to show her up; to prove just how good he was, even more so, he wanted to impress her.
Callie had been friends with his sister for nearly five years now, ever since she’d moved in next door. He’d always liked her. She’d always been nice to him and they’d always enjoyed each other’s company, but in the last year or so something had started to change. What had been a secondhand friendship had begun to take on a more exciting quality. Callie had always been Autumn’s friend, but lately he’d realized a greater excitement beginning to take over whenever she and his sister got together to play, which is why he’d blown off going to the beach with Billy and his parents that morning and, to his sister’s surprise, had suggested baseball instead.
He wanted nothing more than to hit the ball coming toward him. He intended to hit the ball so hard that the leather cover simply peeled away, leaving only the ball’s core sailing toward the other end of the yard, over Callie’s head and into the adjoining woods. She would have no choice but to be impressed. Rearing back, he prepared to swing.
As the ball approached the plate, he lunged forward, putting all he had into the swing as the bat and the ball crossed the plate at the exact same moment but one inch apart. Just as the previous pitch had done, the ball struck the hockey net backstop with a soft swoosh as the momentum of the swinging bat compromised his balance and dropped him to his knees. Female laughter erupted from the outfield, replacing Jonathan’s previous confidence with adolescent embarrassment.
“My turn,” Callie yelled between laughs as she sprinted toward the plate.
Embarrassed by his failure, Jonathan didn’t say a word, simply dropping the bat in exchange for his glove. He couldn’t explain how he felt. Hell, he couldn’t explain how he’d been feeling for the past year. Instead, he chose to avoid eye contact with the source of his confusion and jogged out to the mound to take the place of his sister who was currently trotting to the outfield.
“Right here,” Callie poked as she slammed the bat into the plate, just as her unknown admirer had done moments earlier.
Refocusing his attention away from his confusing, early teen emotions and back on the task at hand, Jonathan stepped back, preparing to deliver a perfect strike. Displaying perfect form, just as his father had taught him, he kicked his leg high into the air, lunging forward and released the ball with all the strength he could muster.
The ball erupted out of his hand as Callie prepared to swing. Shifting her weight to her back leg, she pushed forward, toward the approaching ball. The sound of the metal bat striking the spinning leather was almost inaudible as the baseball instantly changed course. Within a millisecond, the leather orb was sailing over his head and moments later, his sister’s as it broke the wooded barrier and continued its airborne journey deep within the distant woods.
He was devastated. The very thing that he’d intended to do, to impress his unaware love, had just been done to him and now she was rounding the loosely laid out bases in an almost ballet like dance as her closest friend scurried off into the woods to retrieve what would momentarily become an embarrassing home run.
*****
He didn’t have to admit it. Jason was sure that his worried l
ook was all the evidence Derek needed to understand just how nervous he was about this improperly planned and dangerous test. Or, at least it would have been if his friend hadn’t spent the last ten minutes consumed by the dangerous task of connecting the device to the two-hundred-twenty kilovolt transformer that Jason continued to admire from afar.
“And you’re sure that the device can handle this much power?”
“Again, yes,” Derek reassured his nervous friend for what was probably the fifth time since they’d set foot inside the gate. “The charge only passes through the case for a brief nanosecond before we're gone. It’s this place that I’m more concerned with,” Derek displayed a half worried grin as he took a quick look around at the multimillion dollar equipment surrounding them.
“Why, what’s going to happen after we’re gone?”
“Likely, nothing,” Derek reassured as he connected the last of the spider web of wires to the large equipment and then to the case. “If anything, the sudden surge will probably just trip the breakers, knocking out power to half of the town, or...,”
“Or?” Jason’s concern grew at the trailing thought.
“Or, the sudden redirection of power could cause this transformer as well as the other three behind it to erupt in a massive ball of fire and sparks capable of being seen from space,” Derek shrugged dismissively.
“Great. Let’s just hope we’re no longer standing here when that happens.
“Right, now come on,” Derek held out the pair of wire tethered orbs that would connect his friend to the machine.
“What’s that then?” Jason motioned to the red backpack, propped against the fence behind him.
“Oh shit, wouldn’t that have sucked,” Derek laughed as he placed both of his orbs on the ground and jogged over to the bag.
“What?” For the first time in his life he felt completely confused and in the dark about what was going on.
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