Nothing But Time

For my
wonderful
husband who claims that, beyond the magic and mystery of the romance, some things
simply
can’t
just
happen.  There must be a plausible, scientific reason.  For him, I give you a story with a plausible, scientific reason.  Theoretical… but plausible. 

If it’s not plausible enough, then the magic is always there.

ISIS Science & Technologies Facility

South of Oxford
, England

January 2012
             

“
David
, I don’t think th
at we’re supposed to be in here.
”

“Nonsense,
Kate
, it’s my lab.  I can come in here whenever I want to.”

“Let me rephrase then, I don’t think
I’m
supposed to be in here,”
Kate
Kallastad
returned as
her date
continued to pull her along by the hand
,
pausing only to swipe his
facility
I.D. card
through the wall-mounted scanner
prompt
ing yet another door in the restricted section of the R
utherford Appleton Laboratory
to slide open with a beep of welcome.  “I don’t have the clearance for this sector and you know it.”

The
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, or
RAL
as it was called,
was a research facility funding projects in everything from nanotechnology to orthopedic implants
.  I
t was probably fair to say that half
of
the facility had no idea what the other half
was up to
. 
Most certainly
, in many cases,
they weren’t authorized to know
. 
S
ome projects under
government funding were simply
classified
as
outside
of
one’s
pay-grade.
 
Dr. David
Fergusson
, Kate’s date for the night,
worked
in a high security
,
quantum
physics
division
of th
e RAL’s ISIS lab in
Oxfordshire
. 
That was all she knew and Kate was completely comfortable with that
,
having been lectured thoroughly on the rules of the lab when she’d begun her job at ISIS just six months before. 

H
er work was
in another, less secure
sector in
bio
medical
chemistry with a team currently working on cures for any number of viruses including meningitis. 
While her
team’s
proje
ct was well
funded by WHO, the World Health Organization,
Kate
knew the dollar value of hers was no match for
David
’s
,
even though she had no idea what he did
. 

The nature of his work was
deeply
classified
and this
field trip into his lab
went
way beyond typical
first
date confidences. 
These were the ‘so where
are
you from
?
’
moments in dating not the ‘I have a major revelation for you’ ones.

Kate
hadn’t been in England for long
.  She was
an American newly hooded with her
Master’s
degree
in biochemistry from
MIT
and
just
starting
her first big job
. 
She
was focused on her career
and
success
, for herself,
her
team and their
project. 
Because of that focus, she knew almost no one in England beyond the f
ew friends she had made at work
and David, who she had
met about four months before while having lunch with a couple of mutual associates.  He
had expressed
an
interest
in Kate
right away but
she
had put him off
,
citing her new job and
responsibilities
. 
However,
he
’d
been persistent, repeatedly asking her out. 
H
er
new co-workers and friends
had added their voice.  They all agreed Kate needed
to get out and get a life outside the lab
and her studies
. 

They wore her down and, eventually,
Kate had agreed.  What would it hurt anyway? 
Dr. Fergusson was perhaps eight to ten years her senior but pleasantly handsome in a lean,
British
fashion.  With his wavy blond hair and crisp accent, he was attractive
in
that English way that appealed to a large majority of American women.

To her surprise, t
he date hadn’t been too bad
.  They had a
nice dinner at a
curry house
– an
Indian restaurant
– on
the London Road in Oxford where
Kate
had found a nice flat to rent not far from
Oxford’s
campus where she
spent her free hours
doing research
toward her PhD
. 
David
had been a perfect gentleman if a bit over eager to impress.  He had droned on and on about his achievements and awards until
Kate
had finally asked him what other things he liked to do
.  That led
to a
more
moderately interesting introduction to polo, a sport
Kate
knew little of but found interesting. 
After all, if it was good enough for royalty, how bad could it be? 

T
hings had been going along pretty well
until
halfway
through dinner
David
had insist
ed she come take a look at his ‘breakthrough’
. 
All
Kate
could think about was – if
David
had had a breakthrough
– she
was the last one who should be getting the first peek. 
There were reasons the RAL had rules…and I.D. sc
anne
rs.  It was to keep people who weren’t authorized
out
.  Like
Kate
. 
“
Really
,
David
.  Let’s get out of here.”

“No, no!” he insisted
,
still pulling her along behind him, his hand tight about hers.  “It’s just through here and it’s so
thrilling
.  You
must see it
!”

“
David
, I don’t even know what you’re working on,” she reminded, “and I’m sure I’m not supposed to.  Won’t you get in trouble for showing me?”

“They needn’t know.  It’ll be our secret
.  I wanted you to be the first to see it, Kate.  I’ve been looking forward to this moment and the timing is just perfect, don’t you agree?
”
H
e shot her a smile as he swiped his card yet again at a door with his name on a plaque next to it. 
David
’s lab was a tidy
space, large and open
, all gleaming white walls and stainless steel. 
Everything had a place and it was all where it was supposed
to be. 
C
learly,
he leaned toward t
he
anal side of cleanliness
, Kate thought as she tentatively looked around the lab
. 
His words about
sharing the moment with her had given Kate a bit of an unpleasant chill and, for the most part, she just wanted to go home.

However,
David
grabbed her hand once more and pulled her into the lab. 
The center of the room was dominated by an
en
closed space
of
walled in steel
that, to
Kate
, gave the impression of an air-lock or space ship fuselage. 
A room within the room.

The door
had a locking mechanism similar to one aboard a submarine or on a bank vault.  It
was
standing
open and that
was
where
David
was
tow
ing her.

Realizing his intention,
Kate
stopped mulishly in her tracks pulling him back with both hands.  “No,
David
, I don’t like this.”

“Fine,” he relented, a frown marring
his
normally handsome face with
childish petulance.  “Let me tell you
about it
first then.  Are you familiar with wormholes?”

“
Sure.  Physics 101.
”
Kate
shrugged
,
beginning to think that
David
worked more in science fiction than straight science.  “A bridge through
s
pace-time. 
The Einstein-Rosen bridge fi
rst dreamed up back in the 1930
s proposing that space and time were
not flat but
in folds and that
,
rather than travelling around it
,
you could sort of go through the middle of the folds
thereby
getting across space faster. 
But,
David
,
that’s just science fiction.  Theory.  I
t’s not real.”

“
Au contraire
, my dear,”
David
returned with a smirk of superiority
and a hint of condescension in his English tones
.  “Scientists have been working on this idea for generations
.   W
e know that it is possible
;
we just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.  But,
Kate
,
I
figured it out! 
I
found the key!  I’m going to be famous!  Look!”

David
pointed into the chamber where a device that looked suspiciously like a nuclear bomb sat
on the floor
.  A
bout three feet long, i
t was shiny steel, largely tubular with four
rubber-tipped
legs that kept it
stable
.
It reminded Kate of one of her grandpa’s cigar tubes…only much bigger
and infinitely more menacing.

On either side of the tube,
large metal panels st
ood upright like sentinels on guard
.  From the ends of the tube
, thick wires snaked across the floor before connecting to the panels. 
Other cables led to a laptop that was sitting on a nearby table. 
David
was already typing something into it
as he began his lecture
. 
“Like hundreds of physicists around the world, m
y sector has been
funded
for years
to develop a viable wormhole tech
nology.
”
He waved his fingers as if a magician revealing the mystical powers of the universe.
 
“
The creation
of a
trans-space
teleportation device that will
allow us to transport matter from one location to another. 
We
always knew that they random
ly
appear, but initiating one, controlling the destination has always been the key.”

“And that’s it?” 
Kate
raised a skeptical brow at the malevolent-looking piece of machinery
.  W
hile it loo
ked capable of mass destruction, it
certainly didn’t appear to be a breakthro
ugh in space travel. 

“It’s not just an ‘it’, Kate.  It’s a quantum zero-point energy siphon.  The siphon pulls zero-point energy directly from the raw underlying power of the universe at a sub-quantum level.  With it connected
just so
, a quantum vacuum
is created
opening a st
a
ble worm
hole between
the two plates
.
”