though her demeanor did not change.
Roger rose to his feet and headed out the front door. He slowly walked to his floater, looking back at the door expecting to see Sarah. She never appeared. As he entered the floater, he kept looking at the door hoping that Sarah would come out and tell him not to leave, but, after a few minutes, he knew it was a not going to happen. “Matilda, take me home.”
“Yes, Roger,” she said very softly.
When Roger arrived back at home, he commanded Matilda, “Contact Sarah.”
“I can’t.”
“Well, keep trying until you get her.”
“You don’t understand, she is not accepting calls from you, period.”
“Well, route it through other numbers to bypass her filter.”
“Roger, she’s not stupid. Anyway, I already tried that.”
“Then send text messages to all her COM lines telling her I need to talk to her, ASAP.”
“Done. I’m sorry you are having this problem with Sarah. I like her a lot, but her reaction was not logical. She can’t expect you to not voice your concerns. After all, it’s your job. How could she respect you if you didn’t do anything?”
“I don’t think logic has anything to do with it. Matilda, do me a favor and leave me alone for now.”
“Okay.”
First thing Monday morning, Roger turned his report on ISQDT in to his superiors. He knew that it was going to raise a lot of eyebrows, especially since he had been one of its strongest supporters. He was right, and it took only two days for it to blow up in his face. When he arrived at his office on Wednesday morning, there was a note in bright letters above his desk saying that he needed to be in Chairman Gradstein’s office at 10 AM for an important meeting. He arrived early, but there were people already seated around the table. He recognized a couple of people, whom he knew from Legal, but there were others he had never met. He sat down near the end of the table, opposite the chairman’s seat, and waited, trying hard not to look nervous. After what seemed a long time, Chairman Gradstein entered the room with an entourage of people; they spread out and took the remaining seats along both sides of the table.
Gradstein said in an unemotional voice, “This meeting has come to order. Roger, we are meeting today to discuss an issue with ISQDT that you’ve brought up in your report. Does this report mean that you know longer support the project?”
Roger was surprised by the question, because he clearly said in the report that he supported the basic premise of the work. “No, it does not. I still support the project. But I have done some calculations that may indicate dangers associated with running the primary experiment at this time. I think it requires more study, that’s all.”
A swarthy man to Gradstein’s right spoke up, “But you haven’t said anything about this until now, just a month before the first tunneling experiment. Why the delay?”
Roger knew that it was because he didn’t really fully understand the physics of the experiment until recently, but he couldn’t say that. “I was reviewing the calculations again recently and came to a different answer than I had previously.”
“So you’re saying your previous calculations were wrong and now they are right?”
“That is correct.”
“Are you saying that there was nothing else affecting your decision to file this report?”
“My concern is for the safety of the people working on this project. If my calculations are correct, there could be a major disaster associated with the interstellar tunnel experiment.”
“Yes, yes, that is all in your report. But is it true that you and Dr. Yakimato have been seeing each other socially?”
“Yes that is true.”
“I have received an affidavit from her stating that you had a relationship with her, which she broke off, and that you are now attempting to get even with her by destroying her project. Is that true?”
“The part about our having a relationship is true, but she broke off our relationship when I told her that I had concerns about her experiment.”
“But the timing seems to be a bit off. You’re admitting to having a relationship with Dr. Yakimato and that the relationship ended over this report, but the report did not show up until this Monday.”
“I wanted to give her a copy of the report to review before I turned it in.”
“That is not what she has said. She said that she ended the relationship and that she was not aware of the report until this week.”
“That would be difficult. How could I have prepared a report of this size just since Saturday?”
“She said that your relationship has been unstable for some time, and that you probably have been preparing for this moment. She has several pieces of documentation from leading scientists that support her calculations. She asserts that it’s your calculations that are incorrect. I have read the report and tend to agree with her viewpoint.”
“That is not true. We just broke up on Saturday—because of this report.”
“Do you have any proof of that?”
“No, I do not, but I think my reputation speaks to my integrity on this.”
“We are not questioning your or Dr. Yakimato’s integrity here,” he lied. “It’s a case of he said, she said, and she seems to have the backing of the scientific community, whereas you don’t.”
“Physics is not a democracy. It’s based on mathematics. Either it’s probably right or probably wrong. I think this theory has a slight probability of being wrong. All I’m asking is that we take a closer look and do some simple experiments to gain confidence in the theory. I’m not asking that the project be terminated.”
“Dr. Yakimato and her experts don’t agree. They believe the delay and review you’re requesting would be tantamount to a termination of the project. Personally I don’t see any validity to your argument, especially in light of your relationship with the lead scientist.”
Dr. Gradstein spoke up. “Roger, I’ll have your report reviewed internally before making my decision on the ISQDT project. In the interim, you’re suspended from your position and on extended leave. Forward all the material on your investigation and go home. This meeting is adjourned.”
Roger was shocked and got up from his chair as if in a daze. By the time he reached his office, the numbness was wearing off. He sat down at his desk and said, “Matilda, who was that to Gradstein’s right that did the questioning?”
“He is Mr. Derek John R. F. Vandalue, and he is big man in the Global administration. He is the Under-Secretary of Military Preparedness and Defensive Strategies.”
“What the hell is he doing here? I didn’t think the MPDS had anything to do anymore but police the outer regions of the S-system.”
“I have been checking the background of ISQDT, and the MPDS is one of its major backers. Apparently you’re not the only one to see possibilities in this project. Maybe they’re as bored as you are and are hoping to find someone or something to fight in another star system.”
“That’s great. I suppose that means that my report’ll be buried. Plus I’m going to be out of a job soon. Right?”
“If I could gamble, that’s how I’d bet. I think you should get your resume ready.”
“Send all the relevant documents on ISQDT to Dr. Gradstein. Also, send one complete set of documents to the government secret repository in Paris and another to my personal secured area in the Denver. Be sure to date code everything.”
“Done. Is this derriere dressing?”
“Yes it is. If something goes wrong, I want to make sure that they don’t put this on me. I hope to hell I’m not right, even though it is the end of my career either way.”
“You’ve always been very resilient, I’m sure you will land on your feet.”
“Actually I think I’ve already landed, and it’s not on my feet.”
“Oh well, look at this as a paid vacation.”
“Wow,” Roger said with lots of sarcasm.
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For the next month, there was little that Roger could do. He spent most of his time at home going over his calculations, drinking a lot, and feeling sorry for himself. Jack dropped by every few days to help with his drinking and to try to cheer him up, unsuccessfully. Roger couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah. He was still deeply in love. He had Matilda constantly trying to contact her and pass on his messages. He was sure that she must be getting some of them. He had gone to Los Alamos several times, but he couldn’t get through security and waiting outside for her floater hadn’t worked. He had even gone to her house, but he couldn’t get through the security there either. Roger figured that she must be staying at the lab. He even asked fellow physics to pass innocuous messages to her about having a meeting, thinking that was probably the most reliable way of sending her messages. He never received a reply from her in any form.
In spite of his decision about Roger, Dr. Gradstein actually liked him. Gradstein continued to stall the investigation into Roger’s conduct on the project. He recognized that Roger was right about his report being strangled in its crib and buried quietly. Unfortunately, there was very little that Gradstein could do about it. He made it clear to Roger that his career with the bureau was over and that he should consider other careers. He even gave Roger a number of contacts that could prove useful for future employment.
As the day for the first test approached, his messages to Sarah became more frantic. He kept asking her to do the experiment remotely from