“This should kill the entire system,” he said, placing a finger on the switch. “Ready?”
“Hit it,” Mildred said. “The sooner we know, the better.”
Doc flipped the glowing red switch and stepped back. The panel lights died instantly, and the control room grew silent as the comp hum died away. Only the ceiling lights remained bright, as those used a different circuit. Doc waited a few minutes for the capacitors to fully discharge, just in case the comps had crash protectors, then hit the master switch once more.
A dozens beeps heralded the return of the indicator lights, whole panels becoming illuminated. Every monitor brightened as the screens began to crawl with diagnostics as the system rebooted, then the comps did a systems check and began to scroll command codes.
“Work?” Jak asked, craning his neck to see over the others.
“Yes and no,” Doc said hesitantly. “It looks like the unit is fully functional again, but we are still not going anywhere. It is asking for a password.”
“Never did before,” Dean stated.
J.B. shrugged. “It was a good try.”
“We’re not finished yet,” Mildred said, biting a lip. She reached out for the keyboard, then withdrew her hand. “How long a code word is it asking for? Maybe it’s the code for entering the redoubt.”
“No, madam, this has six astrix in a row to fill,” Doc mused. Then he narrowed his gaze and stared at Ryan.
“No,” he muttered, “It couldn’t be that easy.”
Ryan blinked. “What?”
“There is only one way to find out.” Doc typed in a name and hit the Enter key. The comp hummed to itself for a few seconds, before coming alive, every screen in the room flashing DOS commands with a library of numbers scrolling by at unreadable speed. Then the monitors slowed their wild displays and resumed their usual appearance.
“Did it work?” Krysty asked.
Ryan grabbed a chair. “Let’s see.” Going into the mat-trans unit, he placed a chair inside and closed the door. Instantly, there was a telltale hum of power flowing to the machinery and they heard an unmistakable noise of the mat-trans unit working. Ryan waited a few moments before opening the door and there was no sign of the chair.
“Yee-haw!” Jak whooped, throwing his arms into the air. “We back on-line!”
Tilting back his fedora, J.B. whistled. “Used your name as the reboot command,” he said. “Man, did Silas hate you, Doc.”
“And I him in return. I plan to celebrate his demise every year, and drink a toast to the man who did the job.” The old man took Ryan by the shoulders and looked hard at him. The frank emotion on the time traveler’s face was embarrassing, but Ryan understood.
“There are three things that I must do in this world,” Doc said slowly. “And now that Silas is dead, thanking you is the most important.”
“Happy to do it,” Ryan answered truthfully, slapping the man on the arm. “What’s the third thing?”
Doc released his friend and turned away. “Going home to my dear Emily,” he whispered almost too softly for any of them to hear.
Suddenly, a low whining noise could be heard among the comp, closely followed by a familiar voice. “Greetings.”
The companions spun. There was nobody in sight.
“Check the corridor,” Ryan directed, drawing the SIG-Sauer.
“Oh, God,” Mildred gasped, pointing at a comp monitor. “It’s Silas!”
Astonished, the companions gathered around the glowing screen. It was unmistakably the dead white-coat, but not as they remembered him. This Silas was razor thin, with gaunt eyes and hollow cheekbones. A nervous tick jumped in his face, and his hands were those of a corpse. The picture stayed on the screen doing nothing, not moving or breathing.
“It’s a recording,” J.B. said in relief, releasing his grip on the Uzi. “Must have set it off with the reboot.”
“Why isn’t it talking, then?” Dean asked.
“Computers are brilliant, but stupid,” Mildred said, walking to the keyboard and tapping a key. “We have to tell it we’re here.”
The still shot of the scientist flicked, then spoke again. “Greetings,” Silas said in a harsh voice. “If you are hearing this, Major Sheffield, then I am dead and have finally given you the entry code to the redoubt. I held off for so long, Major, because I knew that once you had the code I was no longer needed. You can operate the Kite and dish now, and as the chief of my sec men you know the details of my plans.” The picture smiled, as lovely a sight as the grave of a child.