Continuity

The cast made the work difficult. Sprained wrist and fractured index finger on the right hand. Fumbling power tools and keyboard picking. The chamber had a vague egg shape. Held in its basket by a frame of four girders. They had to be secured to the floor and balanced. The upper left the last of it. Fixed, finished. A hollow cube with the egg inside, balanced and suspended a fraction of an inch. Three steps knelt at its base. Cabling festooned on the concrete before it like intestines that tangled and slithered to the command terminal. A fair distance away. Ten feet or so. Just a hair below the recommendation. On the desk were four monitors. Bracketed panoramic along the width of the station. Legs bolted to the ground. Two CPU's concealed below and two keyboards perched above. A hunched worker. Winnowed eyes and pale skin. Hands clawlike from nights of sleepless toil. Sluggish, exhausted devotion. Amnesiac. Imprecise. One monitor displayed a map used to calculate the latitude and longitude down to a single blade of grass. Down to the root beneath the grass. Where it was and where it will be. Geography was the linchpin. The simple movement from one point to another. On another screen was the long and convoluted code bank that concluded with the deduced ETA. The second and millisecond and centisecond. A series of numbers and colons the length of your forearm. The date, the position.

* * *

Enter. The worker stood, disrobed. Monitor on the bodysuit for vitals. Skin tight leotard. Second skin with wiring. Cap over the hair and forehead with velcro fastening. Like a diving suit. Innocuous grey. Stodgy. Probably unnecessary. The cast had been removed. Mostly healed, finally. After thirty seconds the hatch opened. The warning lights rotated as the worker stooped and crawled in and closed the hatch. Small. Knees held tight to the shoulder blades. It had to recalibrate the weight. Had to sit as still as possible. Initiate. Countdown. From the window port, the glow from the terminal diffused onto the chair and warehouse vacancy behind. High ceilings. Clandestine. No one would know. Should something go wrong. No going back. Funny. Trust placed in digital acumen. Only as good as your own. The countdown continued. Lower and closer. A factory alarm for each numeral. The trembling began. Expected. No less worrying. More trembling. Shuddering. Like when it's time for new brake pads. Not like the tests. A bolt was left too loose on the upper left girder. The chamber dipped to the right. Final tally. Last ten. Exponential spinning. Fear. Hand put up on the pod interior. Clenched teeth. Three, two, one. Execute.

* * *

Lighting flashed. Hot and then cold. Day to night. Boiled to frozen in an instant. Less than that. A subtraction. One month prior, the pod collapsed and tumbled. On its side. Sparks fluttered out from the cable plugins. Smoke. The smell of burnt plastic and rubber and copper. The terminal stuttered with error messages. Unknown origin. Possible intrusion. The door sloughed open. As if by bewildered volition. Like a pressure cooker. Steam. The glass remained intact. The worker lay inside. Alive, unconscious. For a while without movement. The head turned first and then the torso. Eyes lilted and unlocked. Half breached. Blood on the temple. Head filled with wet cotton. A dense slur of vague approximations. The legs bent up and lurched. A hand reached out for the door frame. It wouldn't clench or turn. Pain. Body slumped and contorted out like a grey slug. Tried to stand. Didn't work. Disorientation, vomiting. No bearing, no true north. Wrist held, recoiled to the chest. Blurred vision. Strange fatigue. Like recovering from a long coma. A fugue state without a yesterday. Without memory of the destination or the travel towards. And there can be nothing without memory. The worker surveyed the lab. Took a seat and removed the cap. Wiped the blood away. A bandage would be needed and a cast for the arm. The dominant hand, unfortunately. The terminal was rebooted, the power cords unplugged. There was but one conclusion to record. The experiment failed. Traversal aborted. Frustrating. The resolve wavered but survived. Nothing left to do but repair, reset, and try again.