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.I was among thefirst to reach the wreckage.There was no possibility of anyone surviving--none." Hesitation."Theexplosion in our laboratory was the second worst sight.I was not there--I was in another building--butwhen I reached the laboratory I found a terrible repetition of that hillside catastrophe.No man, no singlepiece of equipment was left intact.The room was shattered.We lost the engineer traveling with thevehicle and eight others on duty in the laboratory.The vehicle returned to the exact moment, the exactmillisecond of its departure and destroyed itself.It was an incredible disaster, an incredible oversight--but it happened.Once."After a space, Seabrooke picked up the thread of his recital."We learned a bitter lesson.Werebuilt the laboratory with thicker, reinforced walls and we rebuilt the vehicle; we programmed a new lineof research accenting the safety factor.That factor settled itself at just sixty-one seconds, and we weresatisfied."Chaney said: "They've been counted for me, again and again.I'll lose a minute on every trip.""A passenger embarking for any distant point, you, will leave at twelve o'clock, let us say, andreturn not sooner than sixty-one seconds after twelve.The amount of elapsed time in the field will notaffect the return; if you stayed there ten years you would return sixty-one seconds _after_ you launched.If we could not be absolutely certain of that we would close shop and admit defeat.""Thank you," Chaney said soberly."I like my skin.How are you protecting those men now?""By reinforced walls and remote observation.The engineers work in an adjoining room but fivefeet of steel and concrete will separate you.They operate and observe the TDV by closed circuittelevision; indeed, they observe not only the operations room itself but the corridor to it and thestoreroom and fallout shelter: everything on that level of basement."Curiously: "How do you really know the vehicle is moving? Is it displacing anything?""It does not move, does not travel in the sense of passing through space.The vehicle will alwaysremain in its original location, unless we choose to move it elsewhere.But it does operate, and inoperation it displaces temporal strata just as surely as those people in the pool are displacing water byplunging into it.""How did you prove that?""A camera was mounted in the fore of the vehicle, looking through a port into the operations room.A clock and a day-calendar hang on a wall in direct line of sight of that camera.The camera has not onlyphotographed past hours and dates but has taken pictures of the wall _before_ the clock was placedthere.We know the TDV has probed at least twelve months into the past.""Any effect on the monkeys?""None.They are quite healthy.""What have you done to prevent another accident--a different kind of an accident?"Sharply: "Explain that." Chaney said carefully: "What will happen if that machine probes back into the past before thebasement was dug? What will happen if it burrows into a bed of clay?""That simply will not be _allowed_ to happen," was the quick reply."The lower limit ofdisplacement is December 30, 1941.A probe beyond that date is prohibited." The Director emptied hisglass and put it aside."Chaney, the site has been carefully researched to determine a lower limit; everyphase of this operation has been researched so that nothing is left to chance.The first building on the sitewas a crude structure resembling a cabin.It burned to the ground in February, 1867.""You went back that far?""We were prepared to go farther if necessary; we had access to records dating back to the BlackHawk war in 1831.A farmhouse _with_ a basement was built on the site during the summer of 1901,and remained in place until demolition in 1941 when the government acquired this land for an ordnancedepot.It has since been government owned and occupied, and the site remained vacant until thelaboratory was built.The engineers were very careful to locate that basement.Today the TDV floats in asealed tank of polywater three feet above the original basement floor, in a space that could have beenoccupied by nothing else.We even pinpointed the former location of the furnace and the coal room.""And so the deadline is 1941? Why not 1901?""The lower limit is December 30, 1941, well after the date of demolition.The safety factor aboveall.""I'd like to see that tank of polywater.""You will.It is necessary that you become quite familiar with every aspect of the operation.Haveyou been visiting the doctor for your physicals?""Yes.""Have you had weapons training?""No.Will _that_ be necessary?"Seabrooke said: "The safety factory, Chaney.It's wise to anticipate.The training may be wasted,but it's still wise to prepare yourself in every way.""That sounds pessimistic.Wasted in what way?""Excuse me; you've been out of the country.All weapons for civilians will probably be prohibitedin the near future.President Meeks favors that, you know."Chaney said absently: "That will please the Major.He doesn't believe civilians have enough senseto point a gun in the right direction."He was looking across the pool.Katrina had left the water and was now perched on the tiled rimof the opposite side, freeing her hair from the confines of a plastic cap.Arthur Saltus was as close as theirtwo wet suits would permit, but none of the loungers about the pool were staring at him.Two otherwomen in the water weren't drawing half the attention--but neither were they as exposed as Katrina. Military codes extended to the swimming pooi whether WACS liked it or not.Chaney continued to stare at the woman--and at Saltus hard by--but a part of his mind dwelt onGilbert Seabrooke, on Seabrooke's matter-of-fact statements.He thought about the machine, the TDV.He _tried_ to think about the TDV.Every effort to visualize it was a failure.Every attempt to understandits method of operation was a similar failure--he lacked the engineering background to comprehend it.Itworked: he accepted that.His own ears told him that every time they rammed through a test.Drawing an enormous amount of power and piloted by a remote guidance, the vehicledisplaced--what? Temporal strata.Time layers [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.I was among thefirst to reach the wreckage.There was no possibility of anyone surviving--none." Hesitation."Theexplosion in our laboratory was the second worst sight.I was not there--I was in another building--butwhen I reached the laboratory I found a terrible repetition of that hillside catastrophe.No man, no singlepiece of equipment was left intact.The room was shattered.We lost the engineer traveling with thevehicle and eight others on duty in the laboratory.The vehicle returned to the exact moment, the exactmillisecond of its departure and destroyed itself.It was an incredible disaster, an incredible oversight--but it happened.Once."After a space, Seabrooke picked up the thread of his recital."We learned a bitter lesson.Werebuilt the laboratory with thicker, reinforced walls and we rebuilt the vehicle; we programmed a new lineof research accenting the safety factor.That factor settled itself at just sixty-one seconds, and we weresatisfied."Chaney said: "They've been counted for me, again and again.I'll lose a minute on every trip.""A passenger embarking for any distant point, you, will leave at twelve o'clock, let us say, andreturn not sooner than sixty-one seconds after twelve.The amount of elapsed time in the field will notaffect the return; if you stayed there ten years you would return sixty-one seconds _after_ you launched.If we could not be absolutely certain of that we would close shop and admit defeat.""Thank you," Chaney said soberly."I like my skin.How are you protecting those men now?""By reinforced walls and remote observation.The engineers work in an adjoining room but fivefeet of steel and concrete will separate you.They operate and observe the TDV by closed circuittelevision; indeed, they observe not only the operations room itself but the corridor to it and thestoreroom and fallout shelter: everything on that level of basement."Curiously: "How do you really know the vehicle is moving? Is it displacing anything?""It does not move, does not travel in the sense of passing through space.The vehicle will alwaysremain in its original location, unless we choose to move it elsewhere.But it does operate, and inoperation it displaces temporal strata just as surely as those people in the pool are displacing water byplunging into it.""How did you prove that?""A camera was mounted in the fore of the vehicle, looking through a port into the operations room.A clock and a day-calendar hang on a wall in direct line of sight of that camera.The camera has not onlyphotographed past hours and dates but has taken pictures of the wall _before_ the clock was placedthere.We know the TDV has probed at least twelve months into the past.""Any effect on the monkeys?""None.They are quite healthy.""What have you done to prevent another accident--a different kind of an accident?"Sharply: "Explain that." Chaney said carefully: "What will happen if that machine probes back into the past before thebasement was dug? What will happen if it burrows into a bed of clay?""That simply will not be _allowed_ to happen," was the quick reply."The lower limit ofdisplacement is December 30, 1941.A probe beyond that date is prohibited." The Director emptied hisglass and put it aside."Chaney, the site has been carefully researched to determine a lower limit; everyphase of this operation has been researched so that nothing is left to chance.The first building on the sitewas a crude structure resembling a cabin.It burned to the ground in February, 1867.""You went back that far?""We were prepared to go farther if necessary; we had access to records dating back to the BlackHawk war in 1831.A farmhouse _with_ a basement was built on the site during the summer of 1901,and remained in place until demolition in 1941 when the government acquired this land for an ordnancedepot.It has since been government owned and occupied, and the site remained vacant until thelaboratory was built.The engineers were very careful to locate that basement.Today the TDV floats in asealed tank of polywater three feet above the original basement floor, in a space that could have beenoccupied by nothing else.We even pinpointed the former location of the furnace and the coal room.""And so the deadline is 1941? Why not 1901?""The lower limit is December 30, 1941, well after the date of demolition.The safety factor aboveall.""I'd like to see that tank of polywater.""You will.It is necessary that you become quite familiar with every aspect of the operation.Haveyou been visiting the doctor for your physicals?""Yes.""Have you had weapons training?""No.Will _that_ be necessary?"Seabrooke said: "The safety factory, Chaney.It's wise to anticipate.The training may be wasted,but it's still wise to prepare yourself in every way.""That sounds pessimistic.Wasted in what way?""Excuse me; you've been out of the country.All weapons for civilians will probably be prohibitedin the near future.President Meeks favors that, you know."Chaney said absently: "That will please the Major.He doesn't believe civilians have enough senseto point a gun in the right direction."He was looking across the pool.Katrina had left the water and was now perched on the tiled rimof the opposite side, freeing her hair from the confines of a plastic cap.Arthur Saltus was as close as theirtwo wet suits would permit, but none of the loungers about the pool were staring at him.Two otherwomen in the water weren't drawing half the attention--but neither were they as exposed as Katrina. Military codes extended to the swimming pooi whether WACS liked it or not.Chaney continued to stare at the woman--and at Saltus hard by--but a part of his mind dwelt onGilbert Seabrooke, on Seabrooke's matter-of-fact statements.He thought about the machine, the TDV.He _tried_ to think about the TDV.Every effort to visualize it was a failure.Every attempt to understandits method of operation was a similar failure--he lacked the engineering background to comprehend it.Itworked: he accepted that.His own ears told him that every time they rammed through a test.Drawing an enormous amount of power and piloted by a remote guidance, the vehicledisplaced--what? Temporal strata.Time layers [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]