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Susan came crashing into the room. “You called and said there was a problem. What happened? What’s with all the flashing red lights?”
Greg’s face was ashen as he stood there looking at the lights and pondering how it all happened. Did I do it, or was it that Paulette was wrong and she couldn’t come back? Which meant the scientist would be right about it being easy to go to the future, but it may be impossible to come back, or did I cause this mishap by fiddling with her code. Now that I think about it, I must have done it. Heck, Danni came back. Crap, what am I going to tell Susan?
Susan rushed over to him and pulled on his arm. “Hey, I’m talking to you! What happened here?”
“I ... um ... well ... ” He paused wondering what he should say and if any of it would matter since he didn’t know himself what really went wrong.
“Hey, ‘um’, and ‘well’ don’t tell me anything. Spit it out! What happened?”
“Well, I’m not sure exactly. She got in the pod and initialized the wormhole, the engines fired, and she went through the wormhole. Everything was fine, until what appeared to be her trying to come back.
“What do you mean it appeared she was trying to come back?”
“Well ... um ... I was monitoring the equipment when I noticed a small wormhole appear, but just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. Then all these lights and alarms went off.”
The shock on Susan’s face said it all as Greg stammered, “Well ... um ... I’m as shocked as you are, but more so that she’d want to return right after getting there.”
Recovering from her initial shock Susan asked, “Okay, I guess the first puzzle is, why did she try to come back? The second puzzle is, why did all the alarms go off, especially when she was certain she found the right formula and answers to getting back?”
“Well, I don’t think we’ll ever know why she wanted to come back so soon, but figuring out the other problem could take forever, especially if we don’t know what went wrong,” Greg replied.
“You know you still look rattled, and there’s also something else. What aren’t you telling me?” she inquired.
“I ... um ... ah ... ” Greg’s eyes glassed over as if in deep thought. The guilt was gnawing at his stomach. He knew down deep that it very well could have been his fault. He had changed something at the last minute, but the distress at seeing the wormhole disappear caused his brain to scramble and he couldn’t remember what it was he changed.
Susan pulled on his arm again. “Ah what?”
Shaking out of it, he replied, “Oh yeah, you wanted to know if there was anything else that could be the cause.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m asking. So, is there?”
“I ... ah ... may have done something to the code, but I’m not certain it has anything to do with what happened?”
“What the heck? What do you mean you messed with the code?” Redness inched its way up her neck and to her face, her fingers curling into a ball. She was so livid at the revelation Greg had just told her.
“I’ve been trying to get her attention for so long, wanting to be more than friends, but she always ignored me and was so obsessed with this project. I just thought that I’d make it so she’d have to stay there for about three months. I had no intentions of causing her any harm and had no idea this would happen. Again, I’m not sure it was my fault.”
“I can’t believe this. You’re telling me you were jealous of her lifelong dream of traveling in time so you sabotaged it, even if it was only for a short period?”
Yes, I mean no. I didn’t sabotage it. I figured if she was so desperate to see the future then she could stay there and enjoy if for a bit, and maybe, just maybe, she’d miss me during that time.”
“That’s just great! What are you, twelve? How very immature, even though you never thought it would work. What now? How do we fix this? You do realize that you could have stranded her in a future where she has no food or water, or her life could be in danger for many reasons?”
“I’m ... s-s-sorry. I didn’t think about that.”
“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t think at all, from what I can see. What are we going to tell her mother? And more importantly, how are you going to fix this?”
“Slow down with the questions, please. First, I’m not sure that we should tell her mom anything just yet. There’s no need to worry her for no reason.”
“Wait, you don’t think we should tell her mother that her only daughter has disappeared?”
“No. I mean, at least not yet.”
“Calm down and answer me on whether you can fix it or not.”
“I’m not sure how to fix it. I can’t exactly remember, at least at the moment, what I changed. Second, we need to look to see if she has any backups that we can look through to compare with the current program. If we can find what I changed, or something else in her notes that might help, then there’s a chance we can fix it. It’s not like we can ask her, you know.”
“Well duh. I don’t know if we can do anything from this end or not, but I’m darn well going to try everything possible that I know. First, I’ll start looking to see if there are any notes and backups. You might as well go home, take a break, reflect on what you’ve done, and see if you can remember what you changed.”
“Sure, I guess, but you make it sound like it's all my fault.”
“Indeed I am, and until I can prove otherwise, that’s the way it’s going to be. I’m disgusted at how stupid you were. It took her years to figure this out, and she was very careful to make sure everything was correct; and in one swift stroke of the keyboard, you screwed it up. So, yes, it’s your fault. Now get out of here before I call the police on you.”
“Really! The police. They’d never believe you.”
“Don’t test me, Greg. Leave!”
Susan’s anger boiled over as she spoke aloud, “I can’t believe he could do something like this. Oh, well, I need to get busy and see if I can figure out if it can be fixed.”
She looked around the room, not even knowing where to start. Her eyes fell upon where the time machine had been, and she couldn’t help but wonder how Paulette was doing, wherever she was, and most of all, why had she tried to come back so soon.
Paulette had asked Susan to take care of Danni while she was gone for a week. Now, Susan would need to care for Danni until Paulette returned, whenever that might be. This was going to be a big challenge, no matter how she looked at it. She threw her hands up, exasperated at the whole ordeal, as she turned and stomped out of the project room.
