Ben’s eyes stop at that phrase too as he immediately asks, “An NDA? What the hell is this?”
Dr. McCoy clears his throat and begins to stand before Dr. Conrad taps him on the shoulder and interjects, “Ben, I promise to tell you everything, but I need you all to sign this first. We have to protect our research.”
“From who?” Ben’s tone grows demanding.
“Everyone,” Dr. Conrad quietly replies before Dr. McCoy adds with a smirk, “but mainly the United States government.” I don’t even know if that’s a joke or if he’s serious.
Ben and I turn and lock eyes and exchange a look we both know the meaning of.
What the hell is going on here?
I flip to the last page and quickly sign mine. I don’t read the terms and conditions. I don’t read them when I set up a new iPhone, I’m not going to read this either. I respect Dr. Conrad immensely, so if he asks for this favor of secrecy, I’m happy to oblige. I also just want to keep this show moving forward and I’m dying to understand why we’re here. Plus, the only person I’d care to tell is already sitting next to me.
Once Ben looks over and sees that I’ve signed mine and am quietly twirling the pen between my fingers, he signs his and pushes it forward to signal he is done. Our mystery companions follow suit, and we all stare at each other.
Dr. Conrad stands up to join Dr. McCoy and he motions for Caroline that we are ready to begin. She shuts and locks the door and I can feel a knot in my stomach beginning to form. Dr. Conrad’s attached conference room has no windows and only one door. I’m realizing now that this room must have been chosen with ultimate secrecy in mind.
Ben leans close to my ear while keeping his eyes on Dr. Conrad. “They definitely want to run tests on us,” he whispers with a soft laugh.
“First things first. Introductions,” Dr. Conrad interrupts. He motions toward our mystery companions across the table. “This is Sarah Henderson and Eric Rivers. They are members of our research team.”
“Sarah, Eric… this is Dr. Ben Turner and Alice Murphy. They are historians here at Chisholm.” Dr. Conrad gestures in our direction.
We all nod nervously at each other. I awkwardly wave across the table and immediately feel any merit I hold as a historian becomes laughable in a room full of scientists. Sarah’s eyes narrow on me and it feels like she hates me already.
Dr. Conrad and Dr. McCoy join each other standing at the center of the room. They both take a deep breath and exchange a look. The room is silent, but filled with thick anticipation.
“We did it,” Dr. Conrad excitedly blurts out.
Ben leans in, more confused than ever. “Did what?” Is this an announcement or a confession?
“Time travel. We cracked it.” Dr. Conrad wipes sweat from his brow, almost in disbelief himself. I can see the pride in his face over the achievement and the immediate fear scanning our faces for a reaction.
Ben’s jaw practically hits the table. “I’m sorry… what?!”
Dr. McCoy takes over explaining. He seems to be the more organized and structured of the two, whereas Dr. Conrad is often untidy and intense. He’s able to explain things in layman’s terms instead of hard to understand scientific jargon. “I know it’s hard to believe, but we’ve done it. We’ve run small tests, going back a day or a week, that have been successful. We’re ready for a real major test.”
Ben asks a thousand questions to understand how they did it, but both doctors are adamant that information cannot be shared for security purposes. Sarah and Eric clearly had a prior understanding of the subject of the meeting, as their faces made almost no change during this revelation, except to seem annoyed at Ben’s questioning.
I tap my pen on the table, swirling in my own thoughts as I listen to them explain everything to Ben. I’m stuck in a daze, half listening to Dr. McCoy’s explanation, and half wondering how the hell I got here today. Finally, I drop my pen, and all the formalities, and bluntly ask, “Okay, but why the hell are Ben and I here?”
Sarah looks annoyed, as if I personally offended her by interrupting her heroes, but Dr. Conrad smiles and chuckles. This already feels like a sharks versus jets, scientists versus historians rivalry.
“Well, I was wondering when you were going to snap and ask that, Alice. You’re right on time, as always. I need you both to bear with me while I explain this, okay?”
Ben and I look at each other and nod back at Dr. Conrad.
“Alright. We’ve been working on this theory of time travel for a long time. Once we started making serious headway, we stopped and asked ourselves a very simple question: why are we doing this? If successful, what purpose could this serve? How can we use this gift for good? We quickly decided that our history is riddled with tragedies and mysteries. Events we wish we could understand, but time and records have muddled the truth. We created a plan that, if this worked, we could travel to events in history to better understand what happened and how we could preserve the accurate story for posterity. This is where you both come in.” He takes a deep breath. “We want to begin our first real mission. Titanic.”
I’m staring into space, hardly realizing that I haven’t exhaled yet. Ben pats me on the back and laughs. “Take a breath, Al.” I don’t know what I expected him to say, but time traveling to the Titanic was certainly not it.
Ben then looks back at Dr. McCoy and Dr. Conrad. “Alright, so let me guess here? You’re going to send these two on a potential suicide mission to a doomed ship and you want us to be consultants? Make sure they know the ins and outs of the history of the time?”
My brain followed the same thought process as Ben. I assume now that our purpose here is to prepare these two to cover all the historical bases.
“No. We want you to go to the Titanic with them,” Dr. Conrad says flatly.
Is this actually happening? He actually said that, right?
