The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

“How does it work?” asks Sylvia running over, catching her breath, and joining the line of reporters chattering amongst themselves, and taking photographs of the tall cylindrical metal object in front of the crowd.

“Well,” says Broad Staffnight. “I will refer to Mario Preparo who is our lead scientist on the project and head of Research and Development for Temporo, Inc. Mario?” Broad gestured to a short balding man in a white coat nearby, small glasses pressed against his face.

“Yes Sir. To answer the question posed by the young lady, there are many dimensions that exist in our definition of space-time, according to the laws of general relativity and its successor string theory, but we were previously only aware of part of the story. There are many more. Modern M theory tells us there are over a dozen dimensions existing alongside our own three dimensional universe. This device transposes matter of any kind to the subatomic level and fuses it to one of these other dimensions, resulting in instantaneous travel to any point in our three dimensional space by breaking down then reassembling that transposed matter, and sending it to the locations we choose”, says Mario.

“Amazing” says Sylvia.

“Ingenious!!!” exclaims another reporter.

“Spectacular! I wonder what runs it” asks another commentator. The comments began to flow spontaneously from the crowd.

“Would you like to see it in action?” says Broad Staffnight.

The reaction of the spectators in the room is a resounding yes when they applauded in agreement.

“Hit it Mario,” Broad pointed proudly.

“OK!” Mario typed in some commands on the control interface, displaying a standard computer keyboard, followed by pulling a lever beside the keyboard. Within moments, a bright hot white and yellow light illuminated the core of the interior of the pod at the center of the device and where there had been nothing; the light faded revealing a person inside.The pod door lifted up like a canopy, projecting upward, and out stepped a beautiful woman with long blond curls and a rhinestone covered red dress, who stepped before the crowd.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the lovely Alexa!” Broad yells as the room applauded loudly with amazement. “As you can see the matter stream cuts both ways making it possible to transmit to or from the device. Now I know many of the eligible bachelors in this audience will be sad to see the lovely Alexa go but we will send her back to the stage preparation room. My dear, please step back into the pod.”

“Sure dearest.” Alexa smiles passing him and squeezing his rear end.

“Not here,” Broad smirks with a devilish grin escorting her to the pod. The canopy closed over her once again. Broad nodded. Mario typed in commands on his keyboard and pulled the lever, causing the hot colorful light to appear and lingering for a period of time longer.“What is going on?”Broad asks curiously.

“I do not know,” says Mario perplexed, “the matter stream is being blocked somehow.”

“Blocked? Pull her back, now!” Broad yells as the audience stands in stunned silence.

“Yes Sir” Mario pulls the lever again and the light vanished leaving, a charred human corpse in the pod, its skeletal features toppling over in the closed canopy. The crowed screamed in horror, and Broad’s eyes widened with hopelessness.

“Open it” Broad replies yelling loudly.

“But sir” adds Mario.

“Open it now!” Broad yelled, and Mario complied. The canopy rose up and the charred remains of the lovely Alexa fell to the ground below. Broad dropped to his knees as tears fell from his face. Mario scrambled with the other scientists to clear the reporters and others from the stage, and the curtain dropped, ending the show for them.

The lights of the studio in the Chronix Bay Universal building were hot and bright. The cameras focused their attention on one person, Sylvia Armstrong. “That is what happened folks. The world’s first “teleportation” device as devised by Temporo, Inc. is a failure that has taken a life. The State Governor has ordered a full investigation and the spokesperson for Temporo, Inc., Mr. Broad Staffnight could not be reached for a comment. It appears that the breakthrough in the next step of transportation would be set back for a long while. This is reporter Sylvia Armstrong signing off, Channel Nine news.” The television clicked off and the remote control slammed onto the desk.

“Get me Staffnight, now!” screams an elderly crumpled voice cloaked in darkness and rage.

“Yes Sir, Mr. Cumberberry,” speaks a corporate official running out of the office in a panic.