Traveller Inceptio
58

The shed was large enough to house four Transporters. Despite the warmth of the English summer, it was an unfriendly, chilly and damp place. Mel shivered as she sat at her desk for a cup of English breakfast tea. She had a photograph on her desk of the original research team and gave a nostalgic smile at how they had changed. She looked so cute and naïve, loving life, her face alive with the hopes that success could bring. They had just tested the scanner and discovered the ability for the system to send items ‘away’.

The past years had been a rollercoaster ride as they set up their company, Woomera Technologies, and made it work. Despite the endless politics, they experienced spectacular successes. The royalties from their inventions were enough to keep each of them fabulously wealthy for the rest of their lives, but how individuals reacted to money and fame was a lesson in individual differences. Like all originally involved in the development of their systems, Mel had changed. She hoped it was for the better, though she was sad they weren’t the same innocents they were back then.

Professor John Crowley, their PhD research project supervisor, avoided the glare of publicity and had only just declared he was about to retire from the university. His last years had been as Dean of Engineering and he had been offered impressive consultancy roles, so had done quite well for himself. However, he never quite forgave the team for what he considered their betrayal when they Transported back to Aboriginal Australia. That stunt had damaged him most, though the subsequent academic benefits had been a boon for him as well. Mel had seen Crowley at one conference or another, often when she was the ‘Special Guest Speaker’. They nodded and engaged in small talk, but that was all.

Craig Ballentine had been a major contributor to Woomera’s initial success. He and Phil had instigated some truly exciting initiatives. As the money started to flow, success changed Craig. He became more confident and outgoing, especially as he was lauded as the first human to have been Transported. With his notoriety he became less concerned with creating better equipment, concentrating more on how his inventions could better help the world. Just last year, he had quit his position as director of Woomera to move to Mozambique and become a missionary with a Christian charity. His wealth had already built a couple of small hospitals and a string of healthcare houses to help a nation with the unfortunate distinction of having the world’s lowest ratio of population to medical professionals. Mel occasionally emailed Craig and had, only couple of months ago, received a wedding photograph of Craig and his stunningly beautiful black African wife. He was tall and thin, as always, and looked radiantly happy.

Allen was the one about whom Mel felt a twinge of residual guilt. He had pursued her romantically for some time. Though they had dated occasionally, it was never to work. Allen was sweet, and a fabulous guy, but just was not her type in the romance stakes. The strain of working together finally caused a split and Allen left Woomera to start his own company. He maintained a close consultancy role with his old company and was ready to launch some stunning software developments. He had also recently married and his wife was already pregnant.

Mel had always been attracted to bad boys; hadn’t her romantic disasters when a student showed that? After a couple of years of indecision, she finally gave in to what the others later described as inevitable. With his university studies well into their completion and a brief relationship with her cousin on the back burner, Yeti had begun to notice Mel more than usual. She had become a classy and attractive woman of note, and while they both attended a conference in Prague, they spent more and more personal time together. She smiled at the memories of them exploring the freezing city with its amazing statues and architecture, while they also explored their own feelings. They eventually cancelled one of their hotel rooms to share accommodation and found that what could have been weird turned into something beautiful. They let the relationship blossom for a year, sharing interests in the sea and the beach, as well as their growing business, and though fearing disaster, Yeti had finally proposed when on holiday in Paris. Their wedding had been classy, private, and in the social pages of every women’s magazine.

Phil, as the team’s most famous face, had gone from strength to strength. Still a director and major contributor to Woomera, he remained in the public limelight and was courted by high profile business captains and politicians. A vocal advocate of the use of the Transporter in humanity’s newest frontier, Phil was often seen on the front page of newspapers and e-news with his singer-actress partner before their spectacular and public break up. He seemed to thrive on publicity, where the others in the original team avoided it. Despite their reluctance, each, except for Crowley and Craig, featured regularly in one scientific magazine or another.

They had all received a more than significant dose of media attention when they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, interesting as Craig was the only physicist. It was the first time that they all, including Crowley, had been together since they had Travelled back to those beautiful golden beaches of their youth. Mel still kept the shells she had collected, and though sorely tempted, knew she could never return.

She and Yeti, now best known as Zak to any but their closest friends, had recently been advised that Phil was to oversee the development of another Transporter by Helguard, the company plainly dedicated to setting up a system for an American Traveller project. As any technological breakthroughs with the Transporter remained the property of Woomera and Helguard Security, Mel often wondered how that was progressing.

Uncle Peter and his beloved Helguard Security had, over the few years, become the dominant player in the lucrative global security market and their scanners were essential for any successful air and shipping port. Recent developments by Woomera had perfected scanners that could process cars, trucks, and containers, a boon to the US border protection agencies that had recently experienced some of their most significant drug and arms busts. The most powerful cartels were feeling the pinch, as were US cocaine users, as the street value had doubled in past months.

Mel felt a hand on her shoulder as Zak kissed her cheek.

“Are you here?” he asked.

She smiled and shook her head. “Just thinking about what a rollercoaster ride we’ve had over the years. We were so innocent,” she added wistfully.

“And broke,” said Zak, sitting next to her to look at the picture. “We risked everything—and it worked.” He smiled. “When’s Phil coming? He’s asked the first Traveller not to be sent till he gets here, as he’ll have some VIPs with him, as usual.”

Mel laughed. Zak and Phil had grown apart over the past years. It had been ages since they had surfed together, but they were still reasonably good friends. Like many real friends, they were fortunate in that they could pick up where they had left off, even if it was months between visits.

Today they were to finalise the tests of the precious Transporter and were to send the first legal human subjects. Leishman and McFee were to test their reactions to the process, scout the immediate area, and then return within an hour. Naturally, they were to be armed, though the mission was of a reconnaissance nature. It was hoped they’d return with enough images and footage to make the historians wet their pants.

Finally, despite the delays and the politics, Project Traveller was to come to fruition.