"System ready."
"Coils charging."
"Fully charged," Hope said, then looked at Scott. "Once the tunnel opens, tell us if you receive any information that might be from her."
"Okay, no problem."
"Alright, then..." Hank pressed several buttons and pushed the control lever. "It's starting."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Massive gears slowly began to turn. Section by section, the quantum tunnel lit up, emitting a low mechanical hum.
Hank and Hope broke into excited smiles. "We did it."
"Any response?" Hank asked Scott.
"Uh... no."
"Wait, because maybe..."
Before Hank could finish, the quantum tunnel slowly stopped operating and began shutting down.
"No, no, no!" Hope hurried to a computer and checked for the malfunction.
"What happened?"
"It's shutting down. Maybe our vectors are wrong."
"We ran the calculations a hundred times. They have to be right."
"Then what else could it be?"
"I don't know."
At that moment, Scott's head tilted gently toward his shoulder. His eyes went blank, then his body gave a slight shudder.
He rushed to a computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard so fast they left afterimages.
"Scott, what are you doing?"
"Scott, don't touch anything."
"Scott, don't..."
Hank grabbed one of his arms, but Scott flung him away.
"Sorry, I don't know how much time I have left. I need to fix the algorithm.
Trust me, I spent thirty years down there. I've done plenty of research on this."
'Scott's' voice had become much thinner, and even the way he pinched his fingers together looked distinctly feminine.
Hank and Hope exchanged looks. An absurd, almost comical possibility surfaced in their minds, but the algorithm running normally on the computer screen made it feel unbelievably real.
"Janet?"
'Scott' pursed his lips in a gentle smile and softly stroked Hank's face. "Darling!"
Behind the lab bench, Aaron,