Amhurst said, “As you know now, the meteorite fragment is not only an excellent conductor, but it also has the capacity for energy storage on an extraordinary scale.”
Blake nodded, but it bugged him that he alone was subjected to this torture. Tobias was upstairs, resting — that irritated him too.
It had only been a few hours since Blake had met his twin, but that brief passage of time had underscored what Blake intuited shortly after their introduction — besides identical DNA, there was nothing similar between them.
Tobias was skittish, nervous about almost everything. And there was no doubt that he’d never taken a life, unlike himself. Both were products of their environment, though Blake would have figured that someone with Tobias’s background had developed a tougher hide. He found it hard to fathom the great differences that were evident in his own life just from growing up with parents for a few extra years.
Crap, was that a question? Dr. Amhurst was still talking, but something in his speech pattern had changed. The sentence was repeated, taking an upward pitch again, and Blake snapped into focus. “I’m sorry, what was that? My brain turned into diarrhea for a second.”
Amhurst frowned like a teacher dealing with an incorrigible student. “I said, I’ve removed the depleted cell you arrived with from your gadget and inserted a new one. Like this.” Amhurst demonstrated, holding up the watch as he replaced the small piece with another object.
“What is that? It doesn’t look like the battery you showed that it had before.”
“I’ve substituted the depleted energy cell for a small piece of the meteorite. The fragment is melted, and from there we can mold it however it needs to be. Once that is done, I charge the material. The size of the energy that can be amassed has yet to be calculated. I’d already created this type of power source for Gernot’s watch, so it was easy to duplicate.”
“So how do we test it?”
“On these.” The doctor directed Blake’s attention to a glass tank that held two small white lab rats with mischievous-looking red eyes. “Snow and White,” Amhurst said.
Oh geez, tell me I didn’t hear that. He’s named them after that chick that shacked up with the seven little men?
Amhurst took the watch and wrapped it around one of the squirming rats, ignoring the creature’s small squeak of protest. “I’ll affix the watch around Snow just like what was done to you before you arrived.”
Blake remembered the sharp hooks that had dug themselves into his now absent wrist and glanced quickly down at the bandaged nub of his arm before putting his attention back on Amhurst.
The doctor rotated a dial on the watch and there was a click followed by a squeal of pain as the hooks embedded into the rat’s back. Blake winced in sympathy.
“Here is when we find out if everything works the way I’ve theorized,” Amhurst said. “I’ll set the LOC1 and adjust the time for return to this location, exactly thirty seconds from now.” He placed Snow back in the container and pressed the activation prong. On the face of the watch a three second countdown began ticking.
The rat was motionless, probably still stunned from the four barbs jabbed into its body. There was a low hum, a crackling of static, and then a loud WHOOSH. This was followed by a crunching, cracking sound as the bottom of the cage was ripped away and sucked into the vacuum of nothingness with the time traveling rat.
In the silence that followed, Amhurst observed, “Ah, as I expected; just like what happened with Gernot, the matter in a small field around the traveling host is taken as well.”
“That didn’t happen when I came to Adelaide.”
Amhurst considered that a moment, then concluded, “This is obviously a side-effect of the excessive charge the fragment possesses.”
“Is there a possibility the charge won’t be enough to get the subject to its destination?”
“Theoretically, no. The charge that is initially used is all that is needed, but I guess we will see.” Amhurst tapped his grizzled chin, silently counting down the remaining seconds.
Blake’s eyes were glued to the hole that had been left at the bottom of the cage on the other side of the rat container. Suddenly, White scurried around in a frenzy, sensing the arrival of something unknown and ominous, like a dog fearing an impending thunderstorm. A quick hum sounded, followed by a forceful rush of air and there it was: Snow appeared with the watch still strapped to its back.
It had been zapped right back to where it was thirty seconds prior, this time hovering over the hole that had been created. The rat fell into the small hole along with chunks of the yanked matter from its first trip, and they clattered about on the tank floor as they rained down. From inside the hole, a pink nose shot out, and Snow hoisted itself up — tentatively at first — then, like nothing had happened, began inspecting its surroundings.
“Okay, so we know it works,” Blake said. “Give it another shot and see what happens.” He motioned to Amhurst, who seemed more than willing to give it another go in the name of science.
The old man set the timepiece again and put the rat back down quickly so his hand would be a safe distance away from the time vacuum. They waited, yet nothing happened. Amhurst made a noise of impatience and took the watch off the squirming critter to access the underside of the device. He withdrew the meteorite fragment and placed a set of prongs against it.
He sighed. “It’s depleted. The charge needed for time travel is extreme.” He paused a moment in thought, then continued, “I’ll just replace it with another charged piece.”
A few minutes later, he came back and attached the watch to White’s back this time. Snow was still scurrying around the tank, oblivious to the four bright red dots of blood trickling down its sides.
Amhurst said, “I’m curious about something, and I’d like to give it a test before we attempt another jump.”
“You’re the scientist, Doc Brown.”
The cultural reference was clearly lost on Amhurst; the doctor gave him a blank stare, then shrugged and began fiddling with the device again. “Okay, what I’ve done is recalibrate the process. It’s now programmed to jump from Location One, or LOC1, to Location Two, LOC2. It should be instantaneous, and it isn’t quite time travel, more like, well, teleportation.” He reached deftly into the container and clicked the button. Again came the soft hum.
Without warning, Snow rushed toward its teleporting companion. “No, no, no, no, no!” Amhurst shouted.
There was a sucking sound, then a popping as expected, but these were followed by a new, wet sound. Blood sprayed against the sides of the glass and the edges of the new crater.
Blake and Amhurst stared in stunned amazement at the tank. Half of Snow had been ripped free from its body and carried into the void with White. Guts, bones, and other viscous matter had been thrown everywhere.
“What the hell?” Blake looked at Amhurst, who was eyeing the bloody mess with revulsion. He can torture a human being and not bat an eye, but a dead lab animal gives him the queasies?
“It would appear,” Amhurst began, but stopped a moment as the return hum and loud flush of air sounded. White reappeared, falling into its own crater like Snow had. A second later it crawled out of the hole and began trudging through the blood swamp of its now deceased tank mate, sniffing at what remained of the body.