Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 19:30 EST From: Subject: Re: Trinity Leap Here you go... Marsh TRINITY LEAP Part Four The Imaging Chamber door opened up, and Sam came back through it into the Control Room, looking very upset. Donna rushed over to him. "Sam, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked. "Me. I did it. I'm the one who changed history back there. How could I be so foolish?" "Sam, what do you mean? How could you change history in the Imaging Chamber?" "I was commenting on the scientists' work to Al, and Feynman could hear me the whole time. He suggested some changes based on what I said. That's what causes the larger explosion. Me and my stupid mouth." "Sam!" said Donna harshly, "So you messed up. It happens. Don't punish yourself for it. Now it has to be fixed. What's Al doing about it?" "Nothing right now," said Sam, looking a little sheepish, "Groves is touring him around and he can't get to Feynman." "So you get to Feynman. You know him, what he's like. Convince him to change things back. It's the best way." "I suppose," said Sam, "But I need to take a minute, have a cup of coffee or something. When I was leaping, I never got a chance to take a break. I could really use one." He went off to the office. Donna looked over to Dr. Beeks. "Verbena, will he be able to handle this?" "It's hard to say just now, Donna. His mind has dealt with some terrible stress over the years. I haven't gotten a chance to see how it is affecting him now. The scars left from Beeterman and Oswald alone could have severe effects on his psyche. I have very little to base any diagnosis on. We just have to wait and see." "I know," said Donna, "But I don't like it." Fifteen minutes later, Sam was back in the Imaging Chamber with Doctor Feynman. "My name is Doctor Sam Beckett. Admiral Calavicci and I are from the future. He's travelled back here to 1945, and I appear as a hologram, an image, tuned to his optic and autic nerves. What we didn't realize was that the structure of your mesons and neurons were similar to Al's, and you could pick me up as well." Dick Feynman grinned, "Well, Dr. Beckett, I will say you have some evidence to back your claim." He waved his hand through the noncorporeal hologram of Sam, "Why did you come here?" "It wasn't intentional," said Sam, "You see, I was the one leaping in time, and Al was the observer. An energy surge caused me to leap home and him to leap back to here. It's the strangest leap we've seen." "Why is that?" "Well, you see, what normally happens is the leaper leaps into someone, switches place with them in time. They are still who they are, but to everyone else, they are the person they leaped into. Al didn't do that, he leaped completely. I still don't know why that happened." "Yes, but what is the point of leaping? Why are you doing it?" "Well, I did it to prove my theories. Once I did that, I couldn't get back. I just kept leaping from life to life, putting right what once went wrong. Al leaped here to fix something. We thought it was the greater magnitude explosion, but that was caused by us, it seemed." "Doctor Beckett, I can see your point, and I understand why I should stop the truncated icosohedron experiments, but I don't know if I can." "Surely your joking, Doctor Feynman!" "I don't know. The genie is out of the bottle, as it were, and the others are already starting to experiment with its effectiveness." "Well, you and Al have to make sure they don't use it. Make it seem inaffective or something. If you don't, Ziggy says that you, Doctor Oppenhiemer, General Groves and many others are killed in the test explosion." "Who is Ziggy?" asked Doctor Feynman. "Ziggy's... well, that isn't important. I've told you too much as it is. Ziggy knows her history, and we'll leave it at that." "Yes, you probably have said more than you should. I will endeavor to keep what you have told me to myself, but it won't be easy." "I have confidence in you on that, sir. I know you better than you think. We met, or will meet, in 1986, if we sort this all out. Of course, when we do, I won't know about this at all." "Time travel makes a difficult life, doesn't it?" "You wouldn't believe." Al had finished his tour of the area with Groves, and was resting in his tent when Sam got back to him. "Well, I explained things to Feynman, and he understands our situation. He's going to do what he can about it." "Great. When we fix this and get it back on track, I'll leap, right?" "Um, yeah, probably," said Sam. "What do you mean, 'Probably', Sam?" "Well, Ziggy gives it a good figure." "How good?" asked Al. "46.9% chance." "46.9? That's it?" "Yeah, well Ziggy can't quite figure it out," Sam said, "She's developing schisms trying to understand how you leaped without a host, so she isn't sure if you'll EVER leap." "I don't like this Sam. Not one bit." "Yeah, well get a good night's sleep. After tonite, you'll have six days to get things back on track. If you don't, Ziggy says that there is a 92% chance your body is one of the unidentified ones of the people killed in the blast." "Thanks. I'm sure I'll sleep well now. Dreams of fields of lillies. Or Lily. She was a show girl in Atlantic City that did this act with..." "I can see that your coming death doesn't change anything with you." "Sam! I have to think of something else besides being burnt into a crisp by a huge ball of nuclear fire, skin melting off my bones, blood boiling..." "Al! Stop it! You'll be fine! We're going to fix this. Have we missed one yet?" "Beth." "We weren't supposed to change that, Al, and you know it. Just, get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." "Send Tina my love, Sam," said Al, looking rather serious. "OK, Al, no problem. Good night." The Chamber door opened up, and Sam went through, and the door closed behind him. Al bedded down, and try as he might, he couldn't shake the image of being killed in a sunfire nuclear blast from his mind.