Ensemble [Book 1: SEKTOR V Trilogy]

Chapter 11: A Plan to Get Stan

Chapter 11: A Plan to Get Stan

Maddy hadn't planned for an extended stay, but after last night, she realized she would be at The Institute for quite a while. The first thing she needed to do was sort out the current situation and come up with a viable plan to acquire Stanley Dial. At that point, she could have Institute specialists conduct physical and mental evaluations and make sure that every last detail of Dial's trip was fully documented. Much had to be done before any additional Jumps could be attempted.

Last night, she'd told Dr. Karak everything she was aware of, including the fact that her people had Dial's family in custody. Karak didn't like that very much either, especially the use of the word "custody". She kept her demeanor steady but internally she'd started getting slightly irritated at how this situation was playing out.

Many, if not all, at The Institute were (happily) oblivious to the "underside" of the Movement—in other words, how things operated in the real world. The Underground's decades' old culture of "don't ask, don't tell" had an unfortunate side effect that was especially prevalent at The Institute. Here, many never asked or seemed to care where the funding came from. The only concern they had was that it did come and in a timely manner. Maddy understood that the science and technology aspect of their Organization had always been the single largest ongoing cost. It had to be. However, this never-ending, no-questions-asked stream of funding also bred an attitude of entitlement. The term 'Ivory Institute' used by many in the field was beginning to resonate with her.

Her irritation had nothing to do with Karak's obvious personal disappointment about how this operation was unfolding. She had thick skin, and could always handle just about any criticism that came her way. However, she wasn't about to apologize for doing her job. Complications invariably turned up on the practical side of any operation. And Maddy was nothing if not practical. The tougher the challenge, the better she performed. The situation with Dial was no different. She'd get her man, and The Institute would get their test mule. And no doubt, this would all happen sooner rather than later.

The next morning, she met up with Professor Karak at the breakfast hall in the main cafeteria on campus.

"Hello, Madeleine," said Dr. Karak.

"Sleep well?" She sat down in a chair adjacent to him.

"I always do," he responded with a polite smile. "I've been thinking a lot about the details of what you told me last night and I have a couple of follow-up questions I'd like to ask you."

"By all means, ask away."

"OK, good. Last night you mentioned the TJC was sent back using Ministry resources. Can you tell me a bit more about how that unfolded?"

"Sure, no problem," she replied. "While we don't have all the details yet, we do know that TJC Stanley Dial's bet went sideways at the alternate timeline casino. We know his Traveler's Mark was detected and that Ministry agents were deployed to the scene soon after. At that point, Ministry officials enacted standard TTFP (Time Travel Fugitive Protocol) and returned him to our timeline. That protocol has only been used a few times over the past 25 years."

Karak shook his head as he stirred sugar into his cup of coffee. "Jumpers thinking they can escape justice from their own timeline."

"Yeah, but it'll never happen with every Mark having a quantum signature unique to the originating timeline. Ironically, with the loss of our agent who was supposed to bring Dial back, the Ministry's actions actually helped us."

"I see."

"Is there anything else, Professor?"

"Well, yes, there is. According to our dynamicists, the odds were never better than 72% percent that Mr. Dial's bet would go the way he thought it would. Over very short displacements, one could expect identical results on nearly every inter-dimensional comparison. However, our simulations suggest that for chaos-dominated systems, such as micro-scale turbulent processes associated with random games of chance, different outcomes are likely even when nearly-identical ensemble member timelines are compared and contrasted."

Karak paused for a moment and looked directly at Maddy. "Your test subject could be the key to understanding how the real world Time Ensemble works, and just as importantly, establishing limits of the predictive system we've developed to mimic that reality. We need to find this Stanley Dial of yours."

"I know, Professor," she replied. "And that's precisely what we're going to do."