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Paulette sat in front of the computer with much anticipation, Danni lying under the desk at her feet, as usual. Her mind wouldn’t stop spinning. I can’t believe this is about to happen and that I’ll prove it works. She took a big, deep breath and sent the program to the time pod. Since no one would be in the pod during the initial tests, she’d also have to program in the target date and the return information from her seat. Once she completed the transfer, she took another deep breath and hit the engage command on the screen.
At first, it seemed nothing was happening, but then, suddenly, a small wormhole appeared near the time pod. The hole began to grow, and once the required diameter was achieved, the pod extended its small jet engines and engaged them. The pod lifted off the floor and entered the wormhole. It had taken what seemed like an eternity, to see it take off, but before she knew it, the room was empty and the wormhole had disappeared.
The time pod had disappeared just like last time; however, if all went as planned, it would reappear in a few minutes. A few minutes later, the wormhole reappeared, and the time pod slowly exited it and landed back on the pad from which it had just left.
She jumped out of her seat with such excitement she startled Danni. She was screaming and jumping up and down. She had done it. Danni eventually sensed Paulette’s excitement and stood there wagging her tail in support.
She ran over to the time pod, opened the door and checked the time clock to see if it had worked. Gazing into the pod, she stared open-mouthed at the clock. She peered at her wristwatch, then back at the onboard clock. Sure enough, the clock was behind by fifteen minutes.
Test number one was a raging success. She could hardly believe it. Sitting back down, she reprogrammed the pod to travel to the year 2050 and remain there for fifteen minutes, hit the engage button, and watched again as the wormhole appeared, the time pod flew off into it, and it shut back down. Danni watched, wagging her tail, and looked to Paulette for attention. She placed her head on Paulette’s lap, which caused Paulette to put her hand on the dog’s head and absent-mindedly pet her as she waited in rapt awe for the return of the pod. Fifteen minutes later, as expected, the time pod returned through the wormhole and landed back on the pad.
Test two was a success. Now that she was confident it worked, she couldn’t wait to show it to Greg and Susan.
She and Danni left the room and quickly located Greg and Susan. “Hey guys, I did it!”
“Did what?” Susan asked.
“Follow me to the project room, and I’ll tell you all about it,” she said as she spun on her heel and briskly walked back to the project room.
Once they were all inside, she looked at them and said, “I’ve officially invented a way to travel through time, and it works. I want you guys to see a demonstration.”
Greg looked at Susan with awe, then turned to Paulette and said, “So you did it, did you? Sure, I’d love to see what you’ve accomplished.”
Paulette instructed them to sit on the computer side of the blast shield and remain there for safety. Once everyone was situated, Paulette entered new dates and times and hit the engage button. Greg and Susan stared at the time pod wondering why nothing was happening.
“Hey, I thought — ” before Greg could finish his sentence, the wormhole appeared. He smiled. “Is it going to come back this time?”
Susan was sitting stone-faced with her jaw dropped wide open. Her head jerked around.
“Wait what do you mean this time?” Susan asked.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you about our little internship with the Abernathy Space and Science Agency.”
Susan turned and stared at Paulette. “What’s that all about?”
“A mistake is what it was. Now both of you sit and watch what the time pod is doing before you miss the show.”
Susan and Greg turned back around in time to see the time pod lift off and enter the wormhole. Then the wormhole closed with a loud whoosh.
“It disappeared into a wormhole that opened in here.” Susan stumbled over her words.
“Yes, it did, and in a few minutes, it will reappear from the time I had programmed it to go”
“No way,” they both said in unison.
All three continued to look at the empty room in front of the blast window, almost as if they were willing the time pod to come back. The room was so silent the only thing you could hear was the rapid breathing of the three individuals in the room. With no warning, the wormhole reappeared, bursting the silence in the room with the loud noise of the jet engines on the time pod as it came out of the wormhole, settled back onto the pad, and shut down.
Greg and Susan were absolutely stunned. Not only did the time pod disappear, but it reappeared. Greg looked at Paulette. “I’m sorry for ever doubting you.”
“It’s all right,” Paulette replied, with an I-told-you-so look.
Susan was somewhat jittery and blurted out, “That was amazing, but how do you know a person can travel back and forth without getting hurt?”
“First, I don’t think a person would have any trouble traveling through time, but I want to test it and make sure everything will be okay.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” Greg asked.
“I was thinking of sending Danni to the future and also the past to see how she does.”
“Hey that doesn’t sound right, using your own pet as a guinea pig,” he said.
Susan interrupted Greg. “What do you think NASA and other agencies did to prove that a human could withstand unknown elements?”
“I guess you’re right,” he conceded. “But they didn’t use someone’s pet.”
“Guys, don’t worry about Danni. She’ll do just fine. My plan is to test the time pod with her in it after a few more tests with some smaller animals inside. You know, like a hamster or gerbil.
“When I have Danni travel through time and back, I plan on getting a full workup on her to make sure nothing about her changed because of the experience.”
“Congratulations on making it work,” Susan said.
“Thanks guys. Do you want to be here when I send Danni through?”
“Absolutely,” they said at the same time.
“Great, I’ll run a few more tests and get her ready to go for a test run soon.”
