Meridian - A Novel In Time

"Don't you ever clean in here, Robert? I could spend a whole day getting the dust off these books."

"Be my guest." Nordhausen warmed to the offer immediately, but Maeve shook a warning finger at him. He tacked back to the argument with Paul, as if suddenly remembering something. "I thought you said a Prime Mover was the primary causative factor for an Imperative, and that only an Imperative event can cast a time penumbra."

"Precisely," said Dorland as he scribbled a brief note in his journal.

"Getting a bit overconfident, aren't we?" Nordhausen needled his friend again. "I mean if the experiment does become a Deep Nexus then the first moment when we open the continuum would be an Imperative event, an event that must happen-is that what you're starting to think now, Paul?"

"Why shouldn't I? If I had your attitude I would have torn out my hair long ago over this business, and given up." He gave Nordhausen an accusing glance but the other man brushed it aside. "If you're so convinced this is all poppycock, then why are you here? Could it be that there's just a thimbleful of faith in your heart as well?"

"Believe me," said Nordhausen, "If there's any possibility that you might actually gain access to the continuum tomorrow, then someone has to be certain you don't start mucking things up."

"Oh, I see," said Dorland. "You want to supervise again, is that it?"

"He ought to hire a maid," said Maeve again from the bookcase.

"What are you doing over there, Maeve?" Nordhausen took advantage of the interruption to veer away from the conversation with Dorland for a moment. The two had quarreled in recent weeks over who should have final authority over the experiment. Up to this point it had been Dorland's team of science experts and physicists that had been the key players in the project. The time and investment required to build the project launch site, with its massive computing and power requirements, had been the mainstream of their effort thus far. Nordhausen worked on the sidelines with his team of historical researchers to isolate an appropriate target for their first experiment. Now that the project plant was fully operational, he argued that the historians should exercise primary operational control. Dorland was too close to the effort expended thus far to relinquish control, and the friction between them had been building as the launch date neared.

Nordhausen slipped away from his place at the table and headed for the coffee station. He tugged on a gold chain attached to his sweater and drew out a pocket watch. "Eight-forty," he muttered. "Wasn't the meeting scheduled for eight? What's Kelly up to? I know," a mischievous glint brightened his eyes as he turned to Dorland. "He's botched up the numbers again, and the whole thing is off. That's why we don't have visitors tonight. Kelly never shows and the meeting gets cancelled." A satisfied grin dressed his features as he bent over the coffee station.

"He'll be here," said Maeve, defending their missing compatriot. "He's probably just stuck in traffic with all this weather. My lord-" She was squinting through the rain drizzled pane of the study window now, still clutching the volume of the Norton Anthology under her arm. "What's going on out there? You'd think it was rush hour."

"Probably a concert letting out over at Sidney Hall," said Nordhausen. "I think they were presenting a Verdi set tonight."

"Not exactly the type of crowd you'd expect to be rushing about like that. Especially in the rain. Maybe there was a fire or something."

"Good!" said Nordhausen. "They should never have built that hall, if you ask me. The acoustics are terrible in the place.