The Traveler (3 page)

“All nonessential personnel evacuate the test area,” came an announcement from below as the room was totally cleared with the exception of ten technicians who remained fixated on their consoles. “Connect the light accelerator.”

Himmler stood and went to the window as he watched the most expensive piece of hardware ever developed by German science as it dangled off the floor. The chain itself was constructed out of a hard plastic material that had been “weaved” together, forming a composite of nylon, copper, and plastic to form a new element called rylar, a composite manufacturing system originally regarded as years ahead of the curve in composite technology and would eventually fill the need in the aircraft industry for lightweight materials. In this experiment the material would be used to control the tremendous amount of heat generated by the doorway. Interspaced at equal intervals along this chain was what made the proposition of displacement possible—industrial blue diamonds. Himmler and his SS had spent two years collecting these hard-to-come-by diamonds the world over, stolen from museums that had been ransacked by the German army and raids on South African mining facilities. All together there were fifty-six five-ounce diamonds ensconced in the ceramic cocoon, which resembled large, oblong bluish pearls.

As the observers watched on, the chain was moved to the very top of the expanded rectangle of the doorway. The robotic arm held it there by the manipulations of a trained technician. They heard loud humming as a bracket was lowered from the top of the doorway and the arm hooked the chain to it. Then the arm released that end and connected the opposite end. Now the large diamond-ensconced chain was loosely hanging from the hook as the manipulating arm was moved away. The mood was silent as the robotic arm was moved and stored.

“Stand by for charging of the system,” Thomsen said into the intercom as a wall was raised below to protect the technicians at their controls. They would be shielded by the charging of the doorway when a flood of neutrinos and charged particles of ion were introduced to the conductive chain. Thomsen could see that Himmler was wide-eyed as he watched. Even though he had seen film of the previous tests and its success Himmler was still fascinated as he watched it live. For the success, or for the chance to watch one of his precious subjects lose their lives, Thomsen wasn't sure. “Herr Reichsführer, when the doorway is fully charged, do not be alarmed when you feel a disorientation as it comes to full power. Its sound waves act as an hallucinogen introduced through the inner ear for some.”

“Is it dangerous to us?” he asked as he once again took a seat to watch.

“Frankly, Herr Reichsführer, we just don't know what the long-term effects will be.”

Himmler nodded. He really didn't care since the damnable technology would only be used once and for a singular purpose—his escape from the Russians, or the allies.

The lights throughout the complex dimmed as power was brought online. Five miles down the line, buried deeply underground, were the three large rubber-encased conduit electrical lines that ran in from the Möhne Dam twenty-five miles away. They were heating up so much the rubber casing started to sizzle.

“Preparing to charge,” came the confident announcement from below.

Thomsen, with a final look and nod from Himmler, opened the intercom to the laboratory below. “Charge the doorway!”

A piercing scream filled the air around every man watching the test. Himmler forced his hands to his ears and then he quickly inserted the earplugs that he had forgotten about. As the audio assault continued one of the SS guards bent over and went to his knees as he became violently ill. Himmler angrily nodded that the man should be removed and punished later for showing his weakness.

“Pulse!” Thomsen said, hoping that the final charging of the doorway would also double Himmler over. But the small man held firm and only gritted his teeth at the onslaught of inner-ear sound and minute vibrations.

Below, the charge of electricity burst into the chain and it stiffened to a straight line of two rows as electricity flowed through it.

Thomsen paced to the side of the Reichsführer and leaned down. “The magnets inside the door frame will be charged and the chain, or what we call the particle accelerator, will conform to its designed structure.”

The final charge was sent through the accelerator. Suddenly there was a bright explosion of light as the circular chain rounded and became taut as the force of the magnets inside the doorway distributed magnetism to equal parts of the chain, which brought the expensive links to attention, forming a perfect circle inside the rectangular doorway. As Himmler watched, the interior of the man-made circle started to shimmer. It was as if an invisible wave moved the very air around inside the accelerator as it hung magically in suspended form in a perfect circle where the opposing magnets held it at bay.

“We are forming a man-made current. Just as if we have shot an arrow underwater, the particle accelerator has now forced ions into the doorway. We are seeing this shimmering simply because as of this moment the current and flow have no place to go, or to lock on to, so the entire assault of our time and space remains contained in this laboratory. Start the revolution, please.”

The magnets started to rotate, and then spun faster and faster until there was nothing but a trail of blue light forming the brightest of flares any of the men had ever witnessed. The RPMs increased as even more power from the Möhne Dam was used. The sheer power was pulsing energy into the surrounding air. The chain connected fast, and then released the opposing magnets to the next in line, which made the speed reach incalculable levels. This same design would be used in particle accelerators in the future.

“We are now going to send our signal into the doorway.” Thomsen again spoke into the intercom. “Go to full revolutions on the particle accelerator!”

Below the circular chain of composite material, steel, plastic, and ceramic was spinning at the speed of sound, which was bringing men to their knees. Himmler grimaced and took hold of the arms of his chair to fight the nausea filling his throat. Thomsen didn't have to explain that this was the closest man had ever come to achieving the speed of light.

A blue haze started to fill the interior of the accelerator as the RPMs continued to multiply. For three hundred kilometers around the Möhne Dam, lights dimmed and transformers blew in almost every town and city. Lightbulbs and fixtures exploded inside the laboratory, making men duck and technicians smile as they felt the power of the very universe strike deep inside the landscape of Germany.

“Now we are near to the power we need,” Thomsen said excitedly.

“For what, Herr Professor?”

“To make the connection to the dismantled gate of two years ago, Herr Reichsführer.”

God,
Himmler thought to himself,
this maniac may have actually produced a viable plan for the second-most powerful man in Germany
. “You may proceed as soon as you are ready.”

“Bring in the Traveler,” Thomsen said as his eyes went to a small doorway in the far wall as it opened, and two white-coated lab technicians escorted a frightened girl into the lab. She was so emaciated Himmler thought she would collapse.

“Our subject for the test is twelve-year-old Moira Mendelsohn, she is from—”

“I do not wish to know the Jew's name, or anything else about her for that matter, Professor.”

“Yes, yes, of course, you have my apologies. Needless to say the Traveler tested at a one hundred forty-seven IQ. Her brother tested only a few points less. Thus far the Traveler has performed magnificently. Now with the guarantee of her return by her brother's very presence.”

Himmler watched below as the thin and sickly girl was led to the front of the doorway. They had already placed earphones on her small head to protect her from the audio assault element of the test. Her clothing was tattered and worn as Thomsen wanted the Reichsführer to see that nothing special outside of headphone protection was needed. Her clothing was the same gray rags she had on when she had been transferred from Bergen-Belsen a month before. All the observers could see the yellow Star of David badly stitched to her gray dress. The small scabs on her head from lice infestation from the camps were hidden as well as possible so as not to offend the sensitivities of Himmler, who was widely known for his weak stomach when it came to observing the men, women, and children he had so ruthlessly rounded up. He could talk a good game, but when it came to facing the things he did he was more on the shy side according to British and American intelligence sources. The girl was shaking and quietly crying. The task she was to perform had been explained to her and would be no different from the last test that she performed flawlessly. To ensure the girl's cooperation, a small boy was also escorted into the room and placed into a chair. The doe-eyed male was no more than eight years of age.

“I was led to believe that there would only be one test subject,” the man from Krupp Steel inquired as he saw the tears in both the boy's and the girl's eyes as they finally saw each other. It looked as if the girl tried to shrug the hand of the technician away in an attempt to go to comfort the frightened child.

“The boy is not a test subject, sir. He is what we would describe as insurance.”

The dawning of understanding illuminated the industrialist's features.

“This was the Reichsführer's idea, after all, we do want certain guarantees that our wayward Traveler steps back into the first doorway and returns. A precaution we have taken since she does know this is the final test with her involvement. After her usefulness is at an end she will be returned to Bergen-Belsen for”—he looked briefly at Himmler—“whatever her fate will be.”

No more needed to be said. Thomsen was proving he could be as brutal as Himmler himself.

“Start the signal!” Thomsen cried excitedly.

The doorway was acting like a centrifuge, so powerful in its rotation that the frightened girl shied away from the forces assaulting her. The technician patted the young girl on the shoulder and then stepped away. Suddenly a burst of sound penetrated the noise from below and held steady.

“Tone is sounding and is now in active search mode.”

Himmler grimaced as the piercing sound of the signal assaulted his ears even through the earplugs. The girl went to her knees as the pain of the signal coupled with the spinning accelerator knocked the senses from her small body.

“We have signal bounce back! Yes, we have a return!”

Thomsen smiled as he knew the two doorways were talking to each other. The space between times had been breached.

“The Jew Einstein was right all along.”

Thomsen smiled down at Himmler. That Jew, as he called him, was the most brilliant theorist Thomsen had ever studied. Himmler and Hitler were fools for chasing these people off like they had; science would not benefit from their action. He went to the intercom.

“Stand!” he said loudly. The girl looked up from her sitting position and back into the glass at the face of the man ordering her to stand. She started to rise but fell back.

“Perhaps you are not strong enough? Your brother perhaps is a better candidate?”

The girl shot a defiant look up at Thomsen. She angrily raised herself from the floor of the lab. With hatred still burning in her green eyes she finally turned and stared into the swirling bands of color that whirlpooled inside the Wellsian Doorway.

“Displacement event seven commencing at zero zero thirty-two hours and fifteen seconds. Commence test.”

After a last defiant look back at the observers, the Traveler looked over at her frightened brother and mouthed the words, “
I'll come back for you
,” and with that, Moira Mendelsohn stepped into the hurricane force of the doorway.

*   *   *

Himmler stood aghast as the girl stepped into the maelstrom of the doorway. He tensed when he saw the young woman stop just beyond the initial frame of the apparatus. Her body was still visible and the Reichsführer could see the frightened girl freeze as the initial force of the Wellsian Doorway snatched her breath away and pulled at the rags of her clothing, sending her ill-fitting dress up and around her thin body.

*   *   *

The Traveler felt the closely cropped hair on her head stand straight up. The tattered woolen sweater she wore was pulled so tightly to her skin due to static electricity that her breathing became restricted. Her heart started a rapid palpitation and her stomach was quickly relieved of the thin gruel of potato soup she had been fed earlier. She felt the wetness of her own discarded meal as the heat of the doorway caught and soon evaporated the material. Still, the wind inside the gate increased as the girl forced her body forward with a feeling of weightlessness.

She felt the sandlike blast of particles as they penetrated her skin and felt the deep burn as they passed through her sinew and bone. Her ears started to bleed and seep from the earphones she wore for protection. The signal from the initiating doorway was so close and strong it ruptured her eardrums. This final test was far more powerful in scope than the previous one.

The Traveler bent over as the agony of the assault made her feel as if her very bones were being pulverized from the inside. Then she fell forward as the force of the corresponding signal from the target doorway pushed back against the first. The connection between worlds had been made. Moira Mendelsohn, a twelve-year-old from the simple streets of the small Polish village of Triske, now forever known as the Traveler, felt the onrush of the last order to be sent from Germany—full power that was sent through the blue diamonds and the RPMs of the electromagnetic field increased a thousandfold. The girl felt the agony of heat coupled with a pulsing of the electrical assault. She opened her eyes at the last second before her body could take no more. She saw the other side of the doorway. It was calm, dimly lit, and peaceful. She blessedly felt her legs give out and she fell forward.