Organization: Penn State University Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1993 22:29:43 EST From: Message-ID: <93039.222943MRM122@psuvm.psu.edu> Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative Subject: Trinity Leap, Part 3 Lines: 136 Here is the next installment of this little tale. Enjoy. -Marshall Ryan Maresca TRINITY LEAP Part 3 The familiar sound of the imaging chamber door opening and closing came from behind Al, disorienting him slightly. He turned to see who cme in. "Sam!" said Al, "Am I glad to see you!" "Al!" returned Sam, "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay... I've remembered a good amount of what's going on." "Then you're doing better than I was with Tom Stratton. What have you done since you leaped in?" "Well, I arrived in the cave, then walked here. Because of my uniform they accepted me as a military observer and put me up in here. I even talked to General Groves!" "Then you know where and when you are?" asked Sam, "This is the Trinity Project!" "I figured that out, but not the date." "July 8th, 1945. The actual test is early in the morning in eight days." "OK," said Al, "Do you know why I am here." "No clue yet," said Sam, checking the handlink, "Ziggy's woking on it... oh boy." "What is it?" "Al, you've changed history! What did you do?" "Nothing!" "Well, apparantly you will, now! Now the blast of the test is twenty times more powerful now. All the scientists and observers are killed, most of northern New Mexico is destroyed as well. What did you do?" "Nothing! I showed up, they thought I was the observer for the Navy." "Well, you've got to get out before the real Naval observer shows up!" "He's not coming, Sam," said Al, showing the telegram to Sam. "Damn! We're going to have to run some scenarios on this! This is the strangest leap we've ever seen! I didn't think it was possible to leap completely like you did!" "Well, it happened!" said Al, "Figure out what I have to do to get history back on track and let's get out of here!" "We're trying, Al, believe me. Just stay calm, act natural, and I'll get back as soon as I can." He punched into the handlink, and the door opened up. Sam went through, and it shut behind him. Al spend the night in and out of restless sleep. Dreams filled his mind, strange images. Beth's face. The empty house. The tiger cage. Lisa's funeral. Northern New Mexico destroyed in a fiery blast. When morning came, Al was feeling terrible. He showered and shaved, and changed into some clean clothes that were laid out for him while he was in the bathroom. It was a simple outfit, white shirt, black pants and a tie. Al felt out of place in such clothes, so reserved, no colors. He put his Naval jacket on over it and went to find some food. The mess hall seemed perfectly normal, by 1945 standards. He looked at the girl behind the counter, who was very attractive, Al thought. "Coffee," he said, "And whatever else you have that's hot." She WAS the first woman he's seen since he arrived in 1945. "Al!" said Sam's voice behind him. "What?" he said back to Sam. "I said are eggs and bacon okay?" said the girl behind the counter. "You aren't here for 24 hours," said Sam, "And already you're hitting on the first thing in a skirt!" "I happen to like it!" said Al. "Good," said the girl, piling the food on a plate and handing it to Al. "Don't you feel guilty? What about Tina?" asked Sam. "She's not going to be born for almost 30 years!" said Al, "She doesn't enter into this." "Your impossible." said Sam. Al was just about to sit at an empty table when General Groves flagged him down from another table. "Calavicci!" said General Groves, "Come join us!" Al walked over to the table. At the table were some other military men and a few scientists. "My god!" said Sam, "Look who's here! That's Oppenheimer, and Enrico Fermi, John von Neumann, and Dick Feynmann! I met him in '86 on the shuttle explosion inverstigation. Nice guy. I think you remined me of him when I met you at the Starbright project." General Groves was making the same introductions to Al. All of them greeted him curtiously, Feynman with a bemused smile on his face, looking at Al with a raised eyebrow. "Why don't you explain the design to the Admiral," said General Groves. "You probably wouldn't fully understand, Admiral," said Oppenheimer, "It's very complex. I don't think we fully understand it." "Try me," said Al, "I went to MIT." "Careful, Al," said Sam, "Don't let something slip they could use to make the bomb more powerful. That's probably what causes the change in history Ziggy's talking about." "Well, we're using an implosion method. We take a spherical shell of plutonium, which is in subcritical state. Then we use symmetrical high explosives to compact it into a solid sphere that is critical." Sam nodded with Oppenheimer's explanation, "That's what they did. It was an effective design which was later replaced by shaping the explosives in a dodecahedron shape." "A dodecahedron?" asked Feynman. "Yeah, you know, like a soccer ball," said Sam, followed with an "Oh boy." "What about a dodecahedron?" asked Oppenheimer. "You know, like a soccer ball. It strikes me that that shape might create a more effective blast." said Dr. Feynman. Fermi nodded, "It definitely might do that. We might want to go test it out." "My God, Feynman can see and hear me," said Sam, "I'll come back later." He started to punch the codes for the door. "Don't go," said Al. "Why not?" asked Dr. Fermi. "Umm... you haven't finished your breakfast yet." Al said with a laugh, "You can't work on an empty stomach. It isn't healthy." The others laughed slightly at this. "Great, that's all we need," said von Neumann, "Another Dick Feynman." "That's it," said Sam, "Ziggy says you and Doctor Feynman have similar brainwaves, and that's how he can see me. Like me with Michael Blake. Except he wasn't like me at all... hmm." "That doesn't matter." said Al. "That's because you haven't worked with him for the past few years," said von Neumann, "You'ld have a different opinion then. Let's finish eating and go check out that 'soccer ball' theory of Dick's." "I think we're in big trouble, Al. BIG trouble." to be continued...