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The Observation Effect. By GeneseePaws

This Week's Writing Challenge: "There just aren't enough days in the hour."

_Meanwhile, On Wednesday, in the first week of April at 2:03 pm. _

"Gail, go ahead and try it," Major Davis called.

Gail shook her head.

"Nothing? ... Damn it, gang! Why is it -still- not working! Crap, unplug it, I'll go back inside and check what isn't working? I don't know."

A little while later the techs heard, "OK, I'm clear, try it again."

The machine made a rising whine, then a Zzzzowwwwwuuuhhh-puhh. Then silence.

"Shit! I dunno, Gail, what happened?" the Major ordered, "Jase, get a Tech in here to take a reading. Maybe the magnetic field is not as strong as we need, we built it as it is shown, ... see, here? I mean, it matches the equations."

There was an echoing voice, sounding like it was inside the machine. "Transistors," was all it said.

"Appilat, Major Davis sputtered, "Replace that board with the transistors. I want all of them changed out."

At 2:15 pm

Gail heard someone speaking, sounding like they were inside the machine.

"Hello? Is someone here? Appilat?" she asked.

A voice, echoed from inside the machine, "Oh, thank god, you're still working tonight. It its night, already right? Listen I don't have time to explain everything but you need to stop working on the device, right now. Don't power it up whatever you do, Oh, Shit, is it plugged in? Unplug it now!! I'm still working on it. I don't wanna get fried. Ooooop, gotta go. I'll be back, Uhnmmm, next week?"

Gail unplugged the Time Machine, "OOooooKay, It's unplugged now," She said.

"Don't use it until I say so, OK?" the voice echoed eerily from the quiet machine.

"Ok, Gail responded, "Who are you? Who's there? App? Jimmy? Anyone there?" Gail looked inside the machine, seeing no one.

"... Hunh, I wonder who was playing tricks?" Gail muttered as she pushed the plug back in.

At 2:35 pm.

The crew came back from their coffee break.

Jase was still speaking, "What's wrong with it? I dunno what's wrong with it, so don't ask me! Maybe the transistors are burning out. We gotta test 'em. Appilat, I want a tech in here, as of one hour ago, go get a tech, ASAP!

At 2:39 pm.

At 2:38 pm, a Tech had confirmed that all the transistors on the board were working.

"O.k. Gail, try it now. Still nothing? Damn. I thought we had it. Maybe if we lowered the value of the resistors, the tank circuit would give us the frequency we need! Damn it, where're my notes? Appilat, have you seen my notes? I put them down, right here. ...And now they're gone... Appilat?"

At 2:40 pm

"No, I don't know where Appilat is," Jase called to Gail. "I haven't seen him. Maybe he's going to prank us again? Anyway, I think we should try to change the resonant frequency by increasing the capacitance. Any objections? It's so close to working, we can get the small stuff to go, what is it about a furrson that makes this so hard?" He said plugging capacitors into the green board.

Jase called over to Gail, "Yeah, go ahead and try it now!"

At 2:45 pm

"Major Davis? It's the General on the phone," Appilat called from the office.

"Appilat," began Davis, "I dunno, double up on the capacitors and tell me when you're ready to test again. "I'll be in my office office, he finished.

"Hello? This is Davis, Oh! Thank you. Hello, General. Yes, General. Yes, ... Yes. Again, yes. Ok, yes-Sir. The thing is, we're close, I just don't know why ... Well, no, if the plans are correct, then the Machine is correct, as built. The calculations show that we can do this. No, Sir, I don't know why. Well, we can get an inanimate object up to about one and a half kilos to go both ways, and anything alive up to a half a kilo to go into the future, and back into the past. So, yeah, a short time, but dammee if I know what is going on with the pile of crap. ... Because, Sir, it's an experiment. But that's why.... Sir! YesSir, I will phone you a full five minutes before it starts working. Yes, Sir. .... Because I know that you know what the word Levity means,-- Sir."

"Jimmy, take a break, get yourself some food and a short nap, this'll take a long, long, time."

"No, Corporal, no," said Appilat auto Jimmy, "I wanna know what you mean when you say that you "didn't do that." If you didn't, who did? Who possibly could have?"

Gail put her hands on her hips, shaking her head, "But it works on solid metal blocks, ceramics, hamsters, mice, rats, glassware, coffee mugs, ... It would probably work on Pokemon if we had some! Why won't it work on the bigger stuff?"

At 2:49 pm

Now try it! O.K., now start adding the feedback into the field. Good! ...Slowly now. O.K., as soon as the tank circuit charges the capacitors, we should see the time field start to stabilize.

"It works," Gail shouted, "It's working. There! There! See it? There's someone inside the machine. And the field is stable. Who volunteered to go in?"

Major Davis spoke up, "No one has volunteered, it just started working. But there can't be anyone in it," she said, "We're all still here."

"But there's someone in there," Gail called from the controls, "In there right now, I can't tell who it is, it's all fuzzy on the monitor. Oh!, now they're gone."

"Well? Who was it," Major Davis asked?

"I don't know," Gail said defensively, Whoever she is, Ma'am, she looks just like YOU! Only you weren't in uniform."

"Oh, shit! This is no good," Appilat whispered. "Pssst, Gail, I'm not here. Just pretend you didn't see anything. I'll try again,... ummm, next week."

"This's fantastic!" Major Davis said grinning ear to ear, "I gotta phone the General, tell him that it works!"

Meanwhile, On Wednesday , in the first week of April 2:33 pm. A year Later

"I'm not going to touch anything, I'm telling you," Appilat began, "I know what I'm doing. I'm just going to go back to the lab, and see what settings they're using. I won't change a thing. It's O.K., we know that we get the time stream working, today, so it's not going to cause a problem."