Bubble

Chapter 27

The work was tedious. Daniel would shepard her out of bed early in the morning and walk her down to the makeshift lab at the command center, where Emma and Dr. Truman would start the long hours research. The premise of the project was quite simple really; it was just the execution that could become rather difficult. The key to it all was a simple algorithm, but it would take hours of condensing data and pouring over information about the tesseract. It had already been six days, but it didn’t seem like they were getting any closer to the answer.

“Hey Abigail,” Emma murmured as she shuffled into the brightly lit room, tossing her bag down on a chair by the door and plopping down in a seat next to her colleague. Dr. Truman had insisted that she call her by her first name since they had been spending almost every waking hour together, and they were beginning to become good friends despite the high stress of the situation, and Emma’s original frustration towards the woman.

Abigail mumbled something back and dismissed Emma with a lazy wave of her hand, her eyes furiously scanning the holographic screen in front of her. Emma didn’t say anymore, knowing that she was absorbed in something important, and powered up her station to pick up where she had left off late the night before.

The lab they had been given was surprisingly well-assembled considering the short notice it was put together on. There were tables lining the walls of the room covered with every type of computer and machine one could imagine. Emma had laughed when she first saw the workspace; it was obvious that the soldiers who assembled it didn't know anything of the work they were doing, seeing as though there were hundreds of useless objects littering the room that were completely unrelated to what they were doing.

But on the other hand, everything they did need to use was state-of-the-art, and provided them with the fastest way to get the answer they needed in as little time as possible. No one knew when the tesseract would open again, and they needed to have the choke ready to use when the time came. If it was activated before they had the algorithm ready and the people from the government were able to get through... Emma tried to keep her mind from wandering to the worst-case scenario. She was going to do this. She had to.

Emma peered over the thousands of numbers that appeared before her, scrolling through the loads of information to try and find something useful. Minutes went by, and the data she had been staring at for days was beginning to blur in her vision. Emma looked down at the bits and pieces of the algorithm Abigail had scratched out on a thin sheet of clear “paper”.

Emma’s watch beeped, alerting her that it was time for lunch, that is, if she wanted it. Most days, she worked through her lunch hour, in fact, she had hardly been eating at all. It was beginning to show, and she decided that it was probably best if she ate. Besides, she had promised Will that they could have lunch hour today.

Emma grabbed her bag and waved goodbye to Abigail as she headed out the door. She walked around the command building towards the market, which was just on the other side. After buying some sort of fruit salad, she went back to the bench that was outside the door of the command center lab to find Will waiting for her.

“Hey,” Emma said as she took a seat next to him and Will returned her greeting. She began to unwrap her food, but looked up when Will put his hand on her knee.

“E, are you feeling okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.

“Ya, I’m fine. Just tired, and stressed. I’ll be okay.” Emma knew that he didn’t buy it. She didn’t need a mirror to know that she looked like hell. Will reached up a hand and rubbed her shoulder.

“Have you even been sleeping?” he asked.

“Some,” she responded, chewing on her lip.

“You shouldn’t be working so much. I’m coming to bring you home tonight at eight. You can’t be working till midnight then come back at four in the morning.”

“No,” Emma said firmly, trying to debate with him. “I have to... I have to figure it out. Or else...” Her voice cracked from the lack of sleep.

“Hey,” Will tried to comfort, putting an arm around her shoulders. “You’re going to figure it out. And everything will be okay. You just can’t stretch yourself so far.”

Emma nodded, but then her head shot up as a thought occurred to her. Will’s eyes widened in surprise as she bounced up and darted into the lab building.

“Abigail! What’s the current circumference of the tesseract?” Dr. Truman looked over at her from the same place she had been all morning, knitting her brows together with a blank look on her face. “If we can plug in the original circumference and the one we need it to be in order to choke it, we can work out an algorithm to elongate the fracture so it stretches the ends close!” Understanding washed over the other scientist’s face, and Emma furiously punched in the numbers Abigail rattled off to her, hoping with every inch of her soul that it worked.

Once the formula that was created was complete, Emma transferred the information to a plexidrive and ran over to the simulation machine. Her shaking hand plugged the little data stick into the side of the device, and she took a ragged breath as the simulator powered up and attempted to use the formula it had been given. It would tell them if the algorithm they had created would work or not, and Emma had already heard the buzz indicating a failure too many times.

The familiar whirl of the processor filled the room, and everything seemed to stand still as she and Abigail stood watching intently for an answer. A hologram of the tesseract appeared, and the diagram began to factor in the equation. The image began to transform on the screen, and a beeping filled the room as flashing green words appeared. Scenario Successful.

Emma let out a shaky breath she hadn’t even known she was holding. They had done it. she and Abigail had created the antidote to the government’s plotting, and it was going to save their home. “We did it!” Emma screeched as she and Dr. Truman squeezed each other tightly, bouncing up and down together. They may have figured out the equation, but now came the even more difficult part- waiting.