Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Starting Time, Part 3

Katya looked over at Kevin, who gave her a wink as he reached in his pocket and handed Cheryl his mini-tablet. She laid it flat on the desk and touched the screen, bring up the 3D projection. She took her fingers and made the view bigger, and soon an image of a young, pretty African American woman floated above the tablet. She had a pleasant speaking voice.

"Yes, Cheryl, Dawn here."

"Hello, Dawn," said Cheryl. "Can you come to Kevin's office? I'd like you to take our new girl and show her around."

"Sure thing, Mrs. C. Be right there." Before Cheryl could even hand the tablet back to her husband, Dawn was standing in the office doorway. She was young and cute and wore glasses. Her straight short hair framed her round face.

"Dawn, I'd like you to meet Katya Sevnik. Katya, this is Dawn Knight. She'll show you the ropes and I'm quite sure will get you in loads of trouble. Not that you need any help in that area."

"I've nothing to offer, so it's friendship I'll send if you care to receive it," Katya said as she shook Dawn's hand.

"Damn, you talk funny," Dawn answered. "I like it. Come on, let's go. What would you like to see first?"

"I don't know. How about the lab? Cheryl says that's where I'll be working until I'm off being grounded."

"Sure thing, Miss K," said Dawn. "Hey, what did you do that got you in trouble?"

Katya answered without a pause, "I accidentally brought my partner to the old twin towers in New York, only it was seconds before it was to become Ground Zero. He panicked and almost got us killed, and it's me who gets in trouble."

"Whoa, dude, that's some scary stuff," Dawn answered.

"Did you just call me a dude?" Katya asked. "Oh, never mind-what's in this room?"

Dawn led Katya into a medium-sized room named the Clock Tower Room, which contained what looked like appliances on several workbenches. Two men and a woman were working on them, while another man was working on the image projected from his tablet computer.

"Once developed, this is how we'll be able to fund our own research. That way, we won't have to rely so heavily on government funding." Dawn brought Katya around to meet one of the workers. "Howie, this is our new girl, Katya, from Waltham. Tell her what you're working on."

"Sure, nice to meet you, Katya." Howie smiled.

"Likewise, I'm sure," Katya replied.

Howie continued. "This here is a food preserver-well, it will be if we can ever get it to work consistently over long periods of time. It does work for about ten consecutive days, though. Check it out."

The appliance looked like a small microwave oven. Howie opened the door and pulled out a bunch of bananas. They were almost ripe with a touch of green yet. "These bananas are nine days old."

"Far out," said Katya.

"They're right there in front of you," answered Howie, a little confused, but then continued: "It uses temporal technology. It runs on common house current and water."

"Neat-o, but how do you deal with the concentrated brain power needed for time travel?" asked Katya.

"Well, that's the problem. The machine picks up on our vibes, since this is what we live and breathe while here at work," answered Howie. "But it loses the energy on extended weekends away."

Katya thought for a second. "Why don't you just duplicate the brain energy with a simple AI circuit?"

"An artificial intelligence circuit? Wow!" said Howie excitedly. "That could work, but I certainly don't see it as simple."

"Sure it is," answered Katya with a lilting voice. "It's common World War III technology. I could help you with it."

"World War III?" the woman in the corner asked. Dawn just shrugged because she knew that there had been no documented cases of anyone being able to travel to the future. The Callahans had taught them that it was impossible. This is why they secretly questioned if Katya truly was lost in time because if she was from the past, she would have had to travel forward to be where she was now. It was also considered unlikely that she was from the future since the present was believed to be natural time. Of course, they all realized that this was just a theory and that there was still much to be discovered about time travel.

"What about you, Dawn?" Katya asked as they left the appliance room. "Are you a TP?"

Dawn's nose wrinkled. "Toilet paper?"

"No, silly, are you a time pilgrim?" Katya corrected with a laugh.

"Not yet," said Dawn. "Oh, I can travel some-that's why I'm here. But I'm still in training. Unstable, you know. I move more in space than in time. Once I tried to travel on my own to the assassination of Dr. King but ended up in Memphis, just three minutes before I left."

"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?" Katya asked.

"Uh-huh! I had to explain that one to Cheryl and ask for plane fare back."

As they approached the main lab, Katya saw that it was similar to the lab in Waltham, only bigger. Dawn introduced her to several people whose names Katya wouldn't remember until she got to know them better.

She asked Dawn if she could see her new office. As they walked down a long corridor, Katya noticed the young blue-eyed guy she'd seen earlier. He was sitting at his desk, looking at the projection emitted above his tablet computer.

"Dawn," she whispered, "who's that good-looking guy in there?" She pointed toward the occupied office.

"You mean in there?" Dawn asked. "That's the Callahans' own baby boy, Cyrus."

"Ah, I heard they had a son," Katya said. "I had no idea he worked here."

"Oh, he works here; he's our most skilled pilgrim. He knows it, too-just ask him. You wanna meet him? Hey, Cyrus, get yourself decent; I'm bringing in the new girl."

Katya looked at her.

"Oh, I'm just foolin' with him," Dawn said with a smile.

But when they looked in the office, it was totally empty. As Katya stuck her nose in farther, she heard a male voice behind her.

"So, you're the Waltham girl I've heard so much about," the voice said.

Katya turned around, and there was nobody behind her. She turned back to the office, and there was Cyrus, sitting in his chair

"Cyrus, now you stop messin' with her or I'll tell your mom on you," scolded Dawn. "He loves that time trick. He's the only one who's mastered it, but we all know we ain't allowed no unauthorized travel during work hours. He's such a show-off."

"Just trying to make a good first impression," Cyrus said as he stood to greet her. "I'm Cyrus Callahan; you must be Katya. It's so nice to meet you."

Katya extended her hand to shake, but when Cyrus started for it, he heard her voice behind him.

"A friend is one who knows us but loves us anyway," the female voice said.

And then from his right: "Good to know you, Cyrus."

And again, from his left: "Lovely to make your acquaintance."

Cyrus stepped back in shock as he saw four Katyas in his office, all smiling at him. His mouth dropped, and then suddenly there was one Katya left, still smiling.

Dawn started laughing. "Cy, ol' boy, I would have to say that you've met your match and she has completely whupped your-"

"Come on, Dawn," Katya said as she grabbed her by the arm. "Let's go see my office now. Hope to see you again, Cyrus."

Katya and Dawn left a dumbfounded Cyrus behind and walked into the delight of her new office. It was small but bright and happy. It had a fresh new coat of yellow paint. Her windows overlooked the Fox River, where she could see the old riverboat casino.

"Katya, my new friend," Dawn finally said, "how the heck did you do that trick back there? The look on Cyrus' face was priceless."

"Oh, that was nothing. Not good for much really, but great for tricking people. I had a lot of fun with it on All Hallows' Eve when I was a kid."

"Well, it was fantastic," said Dawn. "Cyrus is a nice guy, but I think he needed to be shown that he can't always be the top dog around here. Folks already think he has an advantage for being a Callahan and all."

"Well, I hope I didn't make my first enemy around here. He's so cute."

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