Broken Sky

Chapter Seven

Sunday – Two Days to Newton

As a theorist, Simon rarely worked alongside the two specialists who built the equipment he designed. But this project was different. He'd been there at every step, closely monitoring the construction of each new component.

"This is just a power-up test," he reminded the technicians as they finished calibrating the device. "To confirm that the numbers match with theory on a larger scale." He gave them two thumbs-up.

Simon was the sort of man who spoke with his hands, qualifying every sentence with a matching gesture. At thirty years old, he was tending toward pudgy, but could fill twice as much space as others with his flailing arms. He was unaware that his assistants had repainted the yellow caution lines around the robotic workstations to add a few more inches of clearance.

"We won't go over ninety percent." He chopped the air at eye-level. "I'm not expecting visible effects and certainly no damage."

One of the techs arched an eyebrow.

Simon noticed the subtle expression. "This isn't like last time. That fire was intentional. It was ... it was just a bit bigger than I expected. But it cut months off the development schedule."

The second tech lowered her gaze to focus on the equipment.

Simon shook his head and returned to his own work. The two were experts in their fields but didn't fully understand the theory behind the resonator. There were only a handful of people in the entire world who did. The fuel module experiment had been necessary—simulations couldn't provide all the data—and it validated years of work in only a few minutes.

"Look. All of this ..." He swept his arm past the scattered equipment. "is temporary. No one got hurt—" The first tech flinched as Simon's bare fingers narrowly missed an exposed twelve-hundred-amp coupling. "And there was no real damage. And Pieter's promised to make things right. What we're doing now will revolutionize communications."

After the fires, his biggest concern was that Pieter would stop the project entirely. He'd been surprised, and relieved, when Pieter moved his team into luxury apartments at the Everett campus. Not only could he focus on his work, but there would be no more in-person meetings in Seattle. Simon viewed his boss as friendly, brilliant, and compelling—but also terrifying.

Which one of us suggested the experiment with the fuel pumps? He remembered explaining the concept, but had meant to ask for funds to construct another testing rig. The live experiment was simpler and quicker, but also bold and risky—so unlike me—and Pieter had jumped on it, commending him and promising to take care of things. Simon had left that meeting unsure whose idea they'd agreed on.

And that wasn't the only time he'd experienced strangeness around Pieter, whose persuasiveness was legendary. He swore he'd once seen a pen leap into Pieter's hand from the surface of his desk, but then convinced himself he'd imagined it under the stress of the testing schedule.

Today's test was much larger than the earlier one—millions of crystals. He'd chosen a grouping of portals that were in use on both Earth and Cirrus, a set where the exact number wasn't important. He double-checked his settings as a high-pitched vibration filled the air. "Ready?"

Both technicians nodded.

Simon placed his hand over the keyboard. "We'll start at fifty percent." He took a deep breath but couldn't prevent a smile from forming as he pressed the key. In his mind, he was making history.

The lights flickered.

His smile vanished. "Uh oh."

Pieter would not be happy.

* * * * *

Thanks for reading.

Your votes will help me identify which chapters work, and which may need work.