The Tesla Experiment

Chapter 32

Lydia was no longer the target of the greedy professor. Now he had Nina sitting right in front of him, threatening Sam with her life if he did not carry out his order.

“You know, Sam, if he shoots me he is still not going to get what he wants,” Nina said defiantly.

“Would you like to call that bluff, madam?” Westdijk asked, sitting back on the chair opposite the table from Nina.

“Don’t rock the boat, Nina,” Lydia said softly. She was at the control desk, ready to heat up the Voyager III for Sam’s unfortunate departure to join Purdue at the same so-called coordinates. “He is a psycho of the highest order who would do anything for a bit of money.”

Sam was busy getting dressed in the same kind of protective gear Purdue was wearing when he successfully went through the ether. He procrastinated, hoping that Purdue would make contact one more time. Surely the event would distract Westdijk long enough for Sam to overwhelm him, but Purdue was a no-show, as they feared.

“You do know that this is a ludicrous attempt, right?” Lydia told Westdijk. “The machine moves like a line of cars in a one way street. We sent someone down and we cannot send another down until the other has come back up… not without resetting everything.”

“Then reset it,” he sneered at her.

Nina was livid. She hated feeling so helpless. Here they were being bullied by one person, when there were two of them who could attack him if he could only be distracted long enough. She was disappointed that the weapons she and Lydia had at their disposal before were now mere ornaments cast aside on the wall desk.

The only solace was the running video camera. It was Nina’s biggest flaw, in her own opinion, that she could never accept when she was in a corner. While so many ideas for possible solutions went fleeting through her mind, Lydia was devising a plan of her own.

“Come on, my boy! Not even a woman takes that long to get dressed!” Prof. Westdijk shouted to Sam.

Nina’s eyes wandered toward the weapons on the desk, but Lydia’s expression suggested she abandon the notion for now. On the screen Nina saw Lydia punch in a code that was not there before, one to short circuit the machine. Westdijk would not know the difference, never having seen this kind of chamber before. Sam still ran the risk of being electrocuted, even without being caught in the middle of the unified fields and that is what Lydia was most concerned about.

“Will Purdue never come back again?” Nina asked out of the blue to procrastinate.

“I don’t think so. Not anymore,” Lydia replied. “We would need considerable sound amplification to be carried along the electrical current at the same time that he attempts to come back and we lost that with the power failure.”

From the far side of the hallway something stirred. It caught Nina’s eye, but she did not pay attention to it. She did not want Prof. Westdijk to see that something was going on behind him. Suddenly the lights dipped and the screens flickered.

“What is that?” Westdijk shouted in suspicion.

“I don’t know, probably the weather,” Lydia replied, studying the lights against the ceiling. “We would have to keep the current strong if we want Sam to make it to the other side.”

Through the speakers the strange electronic voice phenomenon sounded, starting Prof. Westdijk as it spoke next to him through the auxiliary monitors.

‘—ia, charge now — home,’ was all that came through. Westdijk jumped up to shoot Lydia. He looked completely ashen.

“Don’t you dare switch it off!” he warned, but before he could pull the trigger Healy came at him from behind, striking him down.

“Dave! We don’t have enough current to bring your back yet! Wait!” Lydia screamed back into the void. “He will be caught in the middle if we don’t have enough sound to carry with the electricity, Nina!” she shouted in vain. Sam had no idea what to do, and neither did Nina. While Healy subdued Prof. Westdijk, Foster came stumbling from where he was shot. He looked at Lydia with determination in his eyes.

“Diamonds conduct sound, don’t they?” he groaned.

Sam grabbed one of the guns and pointed to shoot.

“No!” Nina shouted. “Sam, don’t shoot!”

Foster had his hand in his shirt. He ripped his diamond crucifix from his neck and flung it to Nina.

“Lydia, go to the soundproof room!” Nina yelled out as she positioned the diamond pendant to the power slot. She gave Lydia enough time to lock the door behind her so that the sonic clap would not kill her and then she shoved the diamond object into the hole like a wall plug, hoping that it would work.

Purdue was on his way back through the BAT’s generator and from this side the diamond necklace increased the sound and thermal current of the machine to almost 1000 degrees Celsius, pulsing though the ether at a stronger rate than it had before. With a rush of lightning darting past them the chamber lit up with electricity, rapidly heating the atmosphere and roaring like thunder around them all. They cowered and took cover where they could as the pulse throbbed several times, threatening to bend the steel on the windows. Professor Westdijk looked up and rushed for a gun while the others were scattering. Purdue would not have a moment to collect himself before the professor would hold the gun on him to take Tesla’s diagrams from him.

But as Purdue burst through the tapestry in the chamber a bolt of lightning radiated from the exterior of the chamber like the rays of the Black Sun. Westdijk was the only conductor standing up to receive the current. The blue cracks of electricity connected with him, attracted by the water in his cells and within a few seconds his body was charred beyond form under the onslaught of Tesla’s famous coil.

Within moments of the mayhem all fell silent. Here and there a clap of a spark could be heard throughout the house. The majority of the electrical current was conducted by the steel plating along the walls of the house, lighting up all the lights in the entire manor and activating all the appliances at once. Healy was lying on his back, looking stunned. Lydia emerged from her soundproof room and helped Sam up. Under his body was Nina, safely shielded from any harm thanks to the journalist.

“Jesus Christ! Did you see that? We have managed to recreate the Tesla Coil!” Lydia shrieked with excitement.

Nina stood up slowly, holding on to Sam. He dusted off her beautiful dark tresses and she fixed his shirt. She suddenly gasped, “Purdue! Where is Purdue?”

Sam and Healy opened the chamber door with much effort. Some of the rubber had melted onto the exterior metal, but inside they found Purdue lying curled up on the slant of the floor. His hair and eyebrows were singed off, but otherwise he was fine. His clothing was burned to shards in most places, leaving his reddened flesh exposed, but he did not suffer anything worse than a sunburn.

“Oh my God, Purdue! I’m so happy to see you!” Nina crooned ecstatically as the hugged him. The agony of her embrace woke the explorer. Purdue howled in pain.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Nina wailed, placing her hands over her mouth. “I forgot, Purdue, I’m so sorry!”

“Bring him out so I can see him,” Lydia called from outside the chamber. The whole place was filled with smoke and the overwhelming stench of electrical fire. Nina smiled. She could hear Lydia’s affection in her swift request. She wanted to see Purdue, not to ascertain if he successfully recovered the diagrams, but just to see him again. Healy and Sam helped the dazed Purdue from the heat of the Voyager III. Sam looked over at Healy, “You thought this would make amends for what you did?”

“No, I expect hell to rain on me, and rightly so, sir. But I am not sorry I came back,” Healy replied. “Not even that lightning bolt could stop me from protecting Professor Jenner.”

Sam was amazed that the butler still addressed him formally after all they had been through. Purdue slowly opened his eyes, moaning in pain. On the floor lay a heap of black ash that reeked up the place so badly that they wanted to vomit.

“Let’s go to the drawing room, rather,” Lydia suggested, and she did not have to invite them twice. Nina wheeled her up behind the men as they carried Purdue to the drawing room. Healy draped a cold cloth over Purdue’s shoulders and they all sat down to recover from the frantic day they all had.

Exhausted, shocked, relieved; they sat in silence for a few minutes, just panting, coughing, groaning. Finally Healy went to fetch the Medical Kit to tend to Purdue’s wounds for the time being until they would take him to hospital. Purdue stared at Nina across the room.

“What is the matter?” Sam asked.

“I met someone who looked precisely like Nina while I was captive in Hitler’s bunker under the Reichkanzlei,” Purdue smiled. “And Helmut… this is uncanny…”

“He looked just like you,” Lydia recalled.

“That’s right,” Purdue winked at her, silently letting her know that he knew why she slept with Helmut while she was there. Lydia just shook her head and chuckled.

“What about Tesla’s schematics?” Nina asked. “That is after all why you went, wasn’t it?”

“I had it with me, but it was incinerated on the way back, I’m afraid,” Purdue frowned. “I’m sorry, Lydia. It would appear that I failed you.”

“No, sir. You did not!” she replied in her strong, forceful way. “After what I’ve seen today, I am bloody grateful we did not bring back the recipe to that ungodly invention. Can you imagine what the power hungry imbeciles would do with it? Poor Nina and Sam almost got killed over the teleforce weapon!”

“Well, now we know that time travel is possible,” Sam announced.

“I would agree with you, Sam, had I not known that the formula I used had no principals of quantum physics,” Lydia remarked.

“How do you mean? I was there,” Purdue argued, “I was there in Nazi Germany in 1944. I had gone back in time.”

“Not really,” she contested. “You wondered by you saw so many famous people not looking the way we know them, right?”

“Yes,” Purdue nodded.

“According to my own theory — based on Tesla, but largely augmented by myself,” Lydia explained proudly, “you did not travel back in time, nor did you bend space. You actually punched through to another parallel universe. It is quite a different thing.”

“Wait,” Nina chipped in. “How? You mean Purdue went into another dimension?”

“No, darling. Another dimension is a different plane of existence that carries different frequencies to our physical existence. Purdue would have to be a ghost or a demon or an energy ball, whatever, to go there,” Lydia gestured with her hands. “He was in a parallel universe, one just like ours with almost the same events and people. The difference is that this multi-verse is merely the product of different scenarios.”

“So how this world would have been if things turned out differently?” Sam asked, trying to wrap his brain around the oddities of Lydia’s ramblings.

“If Hitler never existed,” she said abruptly, “one universe. If Mozart was a physician and not a musician — another universe…see where this is going?”

“My head hurts,” Nina jested.

“This was why Dave saw people who looked like the exact twins of people here, just in a different life or environment,” Lydia carried on. “The bottom line here is that we proved that we could punch through the veil of a parallel universe, where hopefully we could make a change to their history to keep them from making the same mistakes we made.”

Purdue added, “Without having to worry about changing the future we now live in, as it would be with the past.”

“That’s it!” Lydia smiled. But unlike other times, she seemed less flamboyant and loud about her experiments. To Purdue it seemed that his old friend was ready to hang up her gloves. He was happy for her to have gone out with a historical breakthrough, having no idea that she had passed over all achievements to his credit.