The Prometheus Project by Douglas E. Richards Page B

Regan’s head had lessened considerably and was now equal to just an ordinary splitting headache. “Did you hear that, Ryan,” she whispered. “Mom’s still alive!”
    “But she won’t be for long if what the Teacher said is true,” said Ryan. “And it said that we could do something to save her. But where is she? Where are the other scientists? And how can we save her if they can’t?”
    “Are you sure it wasn’t malfunctioning?” said Regan. “It wasn’t making any sense there at the end. It said that mom didn’t disappear. We know that that’s wrong.”
    “Things aren’t always what they seem in this place,” said Ryan. “Let’s assume that everything the Teacher said makes perfect sense—if only we could understand it. And if that’s true, then Mom will die in a few hours if we don’t figure out what the Teacher was trying to tell us.”
    “Then we’d better get started.”
    Ryan nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s suppose the group didn’t disappear from the room. Then why didn’t we see them?”
    “Invisible?” offered Regan.
    “Maybe. But I think that counts as disappearing. So let’s assume that they were still in the room and easy to see.”
    “Then how could we possibly have missed them?”
    “That’s the question, isn’t it,” said Ryan. His mind raced through the possibilities. He had to think! Their mother’s life was at stake. “The only way is if we weren’t in the room,” he said finally.
    “But how can that be?” said Regan. She paused in thought. “Unless there were two identical rooms in the building and we somehow came back to the wrong one. I guess it’s possible. That would explain why we didn’t see any trace of equipment or people.”
    “I don’t think that’s it,” said Ryan. “Anything is possible in this city, but I’m sure we came back to the same room. And this wouldn’t explain why the entrance to the city was missing.”
    “The Teacher said that Mom will die from being hit by that generator if we don’t hurry up and stop it,” said Regan. “The Teacher used those exact words.”
    Ryan nodded. Hearing things telepathically made them easier to remember.
    “So what does it refer too?” said Regan. “She’ll die from being hit by the generator if we don’t stop it . Stop what? Stop her bleeding?”
    Ryan shook his head. “No. You would think it would have to refer to the generator. This is the only way the sentence would make any sense. But that would mean the Teacher really was malfunctioning, because of course we can’t stop Mom from being hit by the generator. That has already happ—”
    Ryan stopped in mid-sentence. The only way the Teacher’s words made any sense was if it had not already happened. If it was going to happen, but had not happened yet. But if that was the case then . . .  
    “We traveled in time!” whispered Ryan, his eyes wide.
    “What?”
    “That’s it! I’m sure of it,” continued Ryan. “We traveled in time. Why not? We went through a doorway and found ourselves on another planet. Why couldn’t we have gone through a doorway to another time ?”
    “Like the one we went through when we were leaving the soccer-ball shaped building,” said Regan excitedly. “Remember how those three doorways suddenly appeared when you knocked into that podium thing, and we went through the middle one.”
    Ryan’s heart raced. What was she talking about? He remembered there being three doorways when he had expected only one, but he had no idea they had appeared suddenly from nowhere after he had hit the podium. He must have been too busy recovering from the impact to see this happen. But that would explain a lot. “The podium must have been some kind of control panel. I must have accidentally hit the controls to open a time doorway. When we ran through it, we traveled back in time. To a time just before Dad broke into the city.”
    “That would explain why the entrance was gone!”
    “Right. And also why the