2008 November 02

Something I hadn't expected was the choice of finding out what was going on (and keeping it to myself) or losing my job for "conduct unbecoming an employee". I have no idea how they'd have made that stick if I'd chosen to dispute it but I wanted to know what was going on anyway. The form that I had placed on the desk in front of me was a contract, in surprisingly understandable language. If I'd refused to sign it I was to be escorted back to my cubicle, watched I cleared out my desk and then further escorted, this time to the factory door. If I did sign it I would be promising to keep everything I currently detailing secret from my office colleagues, my family, all my friends and anyone else that could have the slightest interest in what I'd already discovered. And more importantly, what I was about to be told.

I wasn't so obviously employable that I could afford to take chances on contract termination and I had no doubt that I'd regret passing up the chance to find out what was going on in the evenings so I slowly read the contract, skimmed it a second time and then signed it. Ben took it, made copies (one of which is currently in a folder of things under my bed back home) and placed the original in a safe that I still don't know how to uncover.

Kris left the room then, to let the project supervisor know that things had gone as expected and I was left with the three others to explain what was going on. It turned out that two of the senior researchers had worked with Rosen several years ago for a short time, in some attempts to continue his investigations in 'wormholes' (Rosen working on his own for the intervening years since Einstein passed away in 1955).

The team (mainly senior researchers with significant leeway from the higher ups) had been trying to bend space for the purpose of coming up with a better way to travel through space. I almost laughed when I was first told that but I saw the looks upon the four faces in front of me and remembered why I was there at that time. Nobody without high clearance was supposed to know what was going on because of the power drains and the potential problems, the first test had seemed to cause a mini vacuum in the test room, with loose papers upon the nearby desks being drawn slowly towards the equipment. The obvious potential money making issues of it all were also a big factor in wanting to keep the circle as small as possible.

Even I was quick enough to realise that I was therefore being informed of things for a specific purpose, after going to the efforts they had been I wasn't simply being given information to keep me employed and non-disruptive. Something in my employment profile had led them, Dan especially, to think I might somehow have an insight into their current problem. I had no idea how that could be possible and told them as much, after all I was just one of the office staff, and when I was at school I'd nearly failed each of the subjects that seemed relevant to what was happening here. That seemed to be the reason they wanted my help, I wasn't going to be aware of what was "possible" and what should be "impossible" according to the laws of physics (or anything else).

Because they didn't do any of this 'extra' work during normal hours it wasn't going to be necessary for anyone else to know that I was "consulting" with them, and I would be offered a small bonus if I helped, with a much larger bonus if I did manage to come up with something particularly useful to them. No brainer decisions are, oddly enough, the ones I tend to think about the most. Being surprisingly perceptive for a 'geeky scientist' Kevin realised that I needed to think about whether or not I should help, after all it was going to involve what should have continued to be my time off.

With the contract specifying that I agreed to keep all this to myself, I was told I could come back with my decision, I just couldn't take longer than a week. With that I was escorted back to the offices and started working as best I could with the mental distraction of my potential involvement in a "secret" the likes of which I woud never have guessed myself capable of being involved in.

I managed to cover my distraction well enough that it wasn't commented on by any of my colleagues but I did get asked where I'd been during my lunch break. Thankfully I'd been told that it would be okay to let people know I'd been shown around some of the research area, ostensibly to let my younger sister know what sort of things were going on as she was going to be finishing school soon and probably wanting a job. (I was a little worried about the depth of knowledge that showed about my personal life but I had no way to do anything about it short of leaving the company, and I'd already decided that wasn't an option I wanted to consider.)

Getting home that night I went through the motions of my normal routine, I showered, cooked, ate, cleaned up and I even went so far as to ring my sister to let her know that I could possibly get her a basic job in the research department. She was pleased but not entirely keen, probably because she'd be the little sister of the guy in accounts, even though I wasn't actually in accounts. After that though I went out on the deck, lay back in my favourite recliner and watched the sky go from a nice clear blue, to the red of sunset and then finally the dark of night. I've always found laying out under the stars comforting (well, always being relative to how long I was allowed to as a child).

I couldn't really see any negatives to taking the deal I was being offered besides the fact I would need to lie to people that asked where I was in the evenings. The positives apart from the money weren't particularly clear to me either, after all it wasn't like I was going to understand most of what I saw.