Edelweiss

Chapter Two

March 7th, 2014

Just to the right of the door in the room Jon had first stepped foot in over a year ago was sitting his invention, completely assembled and ready to go. Jon stood in the doorway looking at it, trying to comprehend what he was seeing, trying to believe it was real. It was now something that he could touch, something he could see. No longer was it just numbers from mad scribblings and a diagram on a piece of paper. The thing that was once just an idea was now a reality.

Inside the main room was a smaller concrete room, and inside of the concrete room were twelve medium cyclotron particle accelerators that made up a large circle. When the charged particles accelerated outward, they would collide and then hold to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerate by a rapidly varying radio frequency electric field. The theory was when this happened for an extended period; it would open a portal in the time continuum. The assumption was if someone were to go through the portal, it would put them in that same spot, just at a different time. Now, setting a specific time could be tricky because depending on which frequency they set, the equipment would determine how far back one would go. Getting it at just the right frequency could prove difficult, but they could do it with enough time and patience.

It had taken Jon years to figure out that the higher the frequency, the farther in time one would go back and how much frequency one would need to account for each week, each month, or each year.

"It is ready now," Dr. Foster, the man sitting at the main computer said. "I hope you are ready because none of this would even be possible without you."

Jon was not sure what to say to that. It felt strange being praised so much, so he smiled at him instead.

Dr. Brandt was standing next to a stack of metal animal cages, and Dr. Jensen was at the control panel. These were the people Jon had worked with for the last year to help bring his idea to life.

"Well, let's get started, shall we?" Dr. Yug said as he handed Jon a lab coat with a tag that had his name and a dosimeter that measured radiation exposure.

"Let's do it," Jon said!

"Jensen, let's get the cyclotrons started, then move on to the next step," Dr. Yug told him.

Dr. Jensen started pushing buttons on the control panel, and the cyclotrons came alive. Jon watched in utter awe at what was happening as rainbow-colored light came from the cyclotrons, and after 15 minutes, a black hole opened up before their eyes. They were watching the entire thing transpire on camera safely in another room. Not knowing what would happen when the cyclotrons started up, they figured it was safer not to be near them.

The door to the concrete room where the cyclotrons were, was also closed for their protection, just in case. This was the first test, and they had to ensure it was completely safe. The cyclotrons emitted a small amount of radiation over time, and no one would want to be in the room with the cyclotron for an extended period or leave the door open while it was running for too long for fear of radiation poisoning.

"OK, Dr. Brandt, you're up," Dr. Yug said.

Dr. Brandt took a puppy out of one of the metal cages, walked over to the concrete room, opened the door to it, stepped inside, and then closed the door behind him. He cautiously walked to the portal, stopped just in front of it, and looked up at the camera for a second before continuing. He gave a kind of 'here we go' glance. Dr. Brandt put a collar with a camera on the puppy, then picked it back up and extended his arms out, putting the puppy near the portal; his hands shook as he moved it closer. The puppy started squealing and squirming in his hands, so he stopped.