The Tesla Experiment

Chapter 29

Nina and Lydia were wide awake by sheer fear and worry. Neither had slept in over a day and now that Sam was absent and Purdue was almost due back they could not afford a moment’s distraction.

“You are officially one of my favorite inventors, Professor Jenner,” Nina remarked.

“Why, thank you, Dr. Gould,” Lydia grinned.

They each sat in their places next to the Voyager III, armed to the teeth. Lydia had introduced Nina to her storeroom where she kept all her inventions, those not pertaining to particle acceleration or Einstein’s theories. During her stint with the SAS as advisor, where she met Healy, Lydia had a fascination with munitions. In effect, the sheeting all around her house and inside was not just to regulate the decibels her sensitive senses were influenced with.

Lydia used it to make a tank of her house. Reinforced steel was in place to protect her should there be an outbreak of war. Healy used to tell her that she was paranoid, but little did he know that she was preparing to defend her home against those who would come to end her life for her secrets. It was another devastating fact she discovered while working on the Tesla Experiment.

“It is the reason why I deliberately made sure that only I kept the data on the progress of the experiment,” she told Nina while they sat in the dead silence, having a smoke. “I quickly noticed that my colleagues and my investors took too much an interest in taking over the experiment once I started showing positive progress.”

“Jesus. So they don’t know you came back, and still they have been searching for the data?” Nina asked.

“Correct. Thinking me dead, they started snooping around CERN, hoping to find lost information. They employed Tägtgren to keep an eye, they…”

“’They’ being who?” Nina interrupted eagerly.

“The Cornwall Institute. They supplied a lot of the funding, but once I disappeared they kept watch over the experiment’s legacy, just in case something surfaced,” Lydia explained, her eyes scanning the markings on the weapon she had in front of her on the table.

“And when Sam showed up on the CCTV at the Alice, all hell broke loose,” Nina remarked. “Now I get it. By that time Purdue was already here with you?”

“Yes, I never stopped experimenting, you see,” Lydia disclosed, having no idea that Nina was recording everything she said for Sam’s sake, should he need the evidence. Lydia was spilling her heart now, looking utterly worn by it all. But she was tranquil for once, as if Nina managed to calm her by accepting all her reasons without prejudice.

“I kept trying to get back to Helmut to get Tesla’s work he stole, but my body was just too frail. That was why I finally summoned Dave in desperation. I knew he would understand. But I did not mean to involve so many people in my little secret success,” she said through the smoke she exhaled. “Just Purdue. He deserved the glory, you know?”

Lydia chuckled sorrowfully, knowing she would never have him, especially now.

“I loved him. I still do. You know what that is like,” she told Nina.

Nina nodded. More and more it became evident that Lydia was not planning to resurface. She planned to stay dead, to be dead. And when the time came she wanted Purdue, the man she loved secretly, to take the credit for her inventions.

“I wanted to give him the acclaim that he deserved in this world, in this era, you see? I wanted Dave Purdue to be my Tesla,” she smiled at Nina with a shimmer in her eyes.

Nina smiled sweetly at the professor. Now that she understood what the whole experiment was really about she would do everything to help accomplish Lydia’s endgame.

“I am sorry, Lydia, for being such a bitch,” Nina apologized. “I had no idea what was really going on.”

“Look, I know why you went off at me, but I could not let you in on all the secrets yet, could I? I had to leave you to believe that I was some power hungry bitch who did not care what happened to Purdue, even while I was shattered to know that he may never make it back on my account. But now I am very glad I got you to understand the method to my madness… and God, am I full of madness!” she laughed. “I just really hope that we can get him back and if we do, that he does not sustain this amount of damage.”

“Do you think his body would hold out?” Nina asked. “I mean, did you calculate his time there to accommodate…”

Lydia gave her a look of reprimand.

“Of course you did. Just checking,” Nina smiled.

“If his return voyage goes smoothly, he should be fine, physically. My damage came solely from miscalculating the difference in duration. I only have one concern,” Lydia sighed. “If the voltage of the BAT is too low the device in his mouth will not be able to amplify the frequencies — the various fields at play — enough. That sound wave emitted by the radio signal is almost more important than the electrical current itself.”

Nina gave it some thought. “You know, I am not one for this scientific stuff, but would it help to use an amplifier of sorts? Maybe turn up the volume on the radio pulse at the moment of the voyage?”

“That would work, but the problem is that this kind of sound we need would certainly blow up my damn head! My ears cannot handle that kind of emission,” Lydia explained.

Nina looked at the control board with all its copper wiring, old screens and large dials. She had no idea what was going on there, but she would do anything to help Lydia get Purdue back successfully. She leaned forward and looked at Lydia. “Do you trust me?”

“Now why would you say that?” Lydia moaned, putting out her cigarette.

“If you tell me what to do, I’ll do it on your behalf when the time comes. You can close yourself up in one of your soundproof rooms and I will bring him back,” Nina said.

“You are serious, aren’t you?” Lydia smiled at the brave historian.

“Aye.”

“Get me a piece of paper and a pencil,” Lydia said with renewed hope. “He should be checking in for the voyage back in about 15 minutes, so we had better hurry.”