3

Tours and Upgrades

“I must say, it looks good on you, Miss Hill.” Although Claire had on a new pastel-colored knee-length summer dress and silver sandals, and her long hair was resting on her shoulders, Dr. Weiss was not referring to any of that, but to the one accoutrement that counts for a young lady with a certain kind of smile on her face: the new ring on her finger. She was walking alongside Ben as Dr. Weiss led them down a long white corridor of the base hidden beneath the New Mexico desert, the base that was the home of Project Enlightenment and the time travel chamber.

Sam still sported his walking cane, and while Ben looked a little rumpled, as if he’d slept in his baggy old clothes on the flight from New York, Claire looked as bright and cheerful as ever.

“I think the ring goes well with the smile,” Dr. Weiss finished.

“Thank you,” Claire replied as she dropped the hand she had been displaying. “And Ben helped me update my wardrobe while we were in New York. Though I must say, I don’t know what people see in those pantsuit things. A lady can look nice and be a professional at the same time, don’t you think?”

Ben grinned. “You won’t hear any argument from me.”

Their steps brought them to another hall perpendicular to their own. A digital clock on the wall displayed the time‍—7:00 p.m. on Friday—and to the right of it a sign pointed in the direction of security, while another, pointing left, was labeled section 2b. They were just coming up to the intersection when two people walked out from the right, one of whom all of them knew quite well. It was Special Agent Hessman, and by his side, Samantha, rubbing her shoulder.

“Lou!” Claire brightly exclaimed. “It’s been too long.”

She immediately skipped over and wrapped her arms around him for a quick hug before breaking off with a smile, her ring finger once again brought up for display.

“Look what Ben got me. Oh, I hope you’ll be the best man when it’s time.”

Agent Hessman glanced down at the ring, then gave her an efficient smile as the others joined them.

“Congratulations, and I hope you have been acclimating well to our century, Miss Hill,” he replied.

“I think that’s about as close to an emotional reaction as you’re going to get out of him,” Ben said, grinning.

Nevertheless, Agent Hessman reached out to briefly shake Ben’s hand, while Dr. Weiss stepped up to make the introductions.

“This is Samantha, my niece, a very bright girl that we’re all quite proud of. Samantha, this is Professor Ben Stein and Claire Hill.”

“The girl from the past,” Samantha said as she reached out a hand to shake. “Lou here was getting me up-to-date with all the team members while my security chip was being implanted. My arm still stings.”

Claire took the hand for a quick greeting as she replied, “They did that to me as well before we left. It faded away after about ten minutes, so don’t worry.”

“Lou has been showing me around the place, and I must say, I’m very impressed. I can only imagine how you’re taking it.”

Here Claire briefly giggled as Dr. Weiss led the way down the remaining hallway. “I’m impressed by things you consider outdated,” she replied. “Like those things you record moving pictures on.”

“CDs?”

“Actually, I was thinking of the tapes. And digital watches, and electric toothbrushes . . . Oh, I could go on all day.”

“Our little vacation was a bit eye-opening for the both of us,” Ben stated as he slid an arm around her waist. “There are some things I never really appreciated until seeing them through the eyes of someone a century out-of-date. But tell us a little about yourself, Samantha. You’re joining the team?”

“I was on my way here when the attack came,” Samantha replied.

To Ben’s questioning look, Agent Hessman supplied a quick answer. “Group of Russians with some odd weapons. I’m still trying to track them down. That’s why we had to end your trip a bit early.”

“Oh my!” Claire exclaimed. “I hope it wasn’t anything serious. Oh, of course it is, or we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Sam was just giving us a little walking tour of the new upgrades,” Ben put in.

“Sounds like something I need to listen in on,” Samantha agreed. “Lead on, Uncle Sam.”

The corridor Dr. Weiss was leading them down had grown increasingly busy with the coming and going of base personnel from one adjoining doorway or branching hall or another. They seemed to be walking down a main thoroughfare deeper into the heart of the facility.

“Since my niece hasn’t bragged about herself yet, allow me to do it for her,” Dr. Weiss began. “One of the youngest PhDs in physics that you’ll ever meet, absolutely brilliant, and a budding expert on the theory of time travel and its consequences.”

“Only because Uncle Sam encouraged me so much growing up. Now I’m a member of this project and soon to see an actual working time machine. Color me impressed.”

“Don’t let her fool you,” Dr. Weiss continued. “She’s brilliant. Even got on a think tank over at Caltech. What was that on, Sam?”

“Climate change,” she replied. “But let’s see more of this base.”

“And what about that cane?” Ben asked. “How long until you’ll be running around without it?”

“Actually, I’m thinking of keeping it. Makes for a rather stylish look, don’t you think?”

“Back in my time all the gentlemen sported canes,” Claire put in. “That and a top hat.”

“I’m not too sure about the hat,” Dr. Weiss replied. “Then I’d have to get a suit to go along with it. Anyway, in the months since you two went on your trip, there have been a few upgrades. First, we’ve enhanced the monitoring of TDWs to better pinpoint the time and location of the events, as well as to allow for quicker detection. All the better to prevent any changes to history.”

They came to a four-way intersection. The middle hall was labeled time chambers, the right command, and the left medical. Ben noted the plural form of the first sign and eyed Dr. Weiss.

“Yes, we had a second chamber constructed,” Sam replied. “That way we can respond to multiple temporal events. The general has also increased the reaction teams to three to respond on a moment’s notice. One for each chamber and a backup.”

“Sounds like a wise precaution,” Samantha remarked, “but has anyone considered the ramifications of having two temporal chambers operating simultaneously? Two wormholes so close to one another might have some crossover effects.”

“We’ve been running some simulations and tests, and so far all looks okay,” Dr. Weiss replied. “We just have to keep their dimensional operating frequencies sufficiently separated.”

He turned down the left hall toward Medical and continued his explanations.

“I have also been working on developing a temporal neutral field that will surround each chamber so that all within them will be immune to any changes to history that may be incurred during a trip—at least in theory. We haven’t had a chance to test it out yet, and we hope we’ll never really need it.”

“That’s Uncle’s way of saying it may still have a few bugs in it,” Samantha said. “But I have faith in him.”

“It’s one of the reasons why I recommended that my niece join the team. Her input will help me fine-tune a few things. We also vastly increased the data storage of the computers in these protected areas so as to hold as much data on world history as can possibly be found. After our first excursion it was decided that every detail, no matter how small, could turn out to be very important.”

“I know one of those little details saved my life,” Claire put in. “Though I wish I could have at least said goodbye to my parents.”

Ben saw the brief look of regret on her face and hugged her closer as they walked.

“At any rate, the purpose of all these changes is to add a more proactive operation to ensure that others do not disrupt history, while also allowing the safe and supervised observation of historical events.”

Both the tour and their steps came to a halt before the central nursing station of the circular hub that was the medical section. Ringed around it was a series of partitions leading into the adjoining patient rooms, with one at the opposite side labeled “OR.” They paused here for a moment, with a couple of questioning looks directed at Dr. Weiss.

“Phelps didn’t make it,” Dr. Weiss said to the unvoiced question. “We lost him just the other day.”

“And Sue?” Claire asked.

Sam said nothing, just led them around to the left, past two partitions. At the third he parted the curtain and let Claire and Ben proceed inside. Behind them Samantha was about to step forward, but a gentle hand from Agent Hessman stopped her. He simply gave her a look to which she replied with a nod.

Agent Sue Harris, a black lady with short-cropped hair, was wired up with tubes and sensors, surrounded by monitor devices to one side and a medical drip to the other. Her eyes were closed, and if the slow progression of her heart rate being displayed on one of the monitors was any indication, she would remain unconscious for some time to come. Seeing her like this, Claire found herself clutching Ben’s hand tightly as the two approached the edge of the bed.

Ben and Claire

“Sue,” Claire whispered. “Hey, sorry I haven’t been in to see you in a while, but Ben’s been showing me around. I wish you could have been up to come along with us. There was a pair of would-be muggers that I would have loved to see you take care of.”

A tear drifted down Claire’s cheek, accompanied by a forced smile, as she reached out to lightly caress the unconscious lady’s hand. Then she remembered what was on her own hand and brought it up before Sue’s face as if she might see it.

“Look what Ben got me. We’re engaged now. Oh, he’s made me just so happy. I always felt a little out of place back when I came from, but around Ben . . . I never thought my dreamboat would come from another time. At any rate, I want you to be my maid of honor, so we’ll hold off the wedding however long it takes until you’re awake and can attend.”

She drew back her hand and leaned in close to whisper in Agent Harris’s ear. “But you better wake up real soon because I really want to marry this guy.”

It was a few moments longer before Ben and Claire came out of the room to rejoin Dr. Weiss. Claire sniffed sadly as she glanced up and happened to see Lou and Samantha across the room. They were idly conversing, Samantha with a pleasant smile, Agent Hessman with his usual noncommittal composure. In Claire’s view, however, his emotional neutrality seemed just a little forced when around Samantha, and to this Claire flashed a grin as they followed Dr. Weiss out of the medical wing.

They found themselves soon enough back at the previous intersection, this time headed down the hall labeled command, with Dr. Weiss once again narrating.

“The command center has seen several upgrades, as you’ll see, but the most important one is General Karlson himself.”

“General Karlson?” Ben asked. “What happened to him?”

“Did he become a mechanical man or something?” Claire asked. “Because in this time I never know just what may be possible.”

“Nothing as extreme as that, Miss Hill,” Agent Hessman replied. “He has simply been promoted to four-star general.”

General Karlson

As they approached a heavy security door, a pair of armed security men eyed them carefully. The walls to either side of the door had what looked like a glass surface, and as they each walked between them the glass flashed green. Only then did the guards relax as the security door began to slide open.

“Weight sensors in the floor to tell when there’s anyone here,” Agent Hessman explained, “coupled with the wall sensors scanning for those security chips everyone’s been implanted with. If it senses a weight and no accompanying chip signal, then the panels flash red and things get a little messy.”

“I’m just impressed by the fact that the gate is sliding aside all by itself,” Claire remarked. “The rest is just gravy.”

Once the thick metal door had slid fully aside, Dr. Weiss led the way through.