The alarm woke us and after I'd hit the snooze button we spent the minutes cuddling up and then, when she rolled to face me, kissing and hugging till the alarm's insistent beeping called a halt.
We showered, dressed and ate a lazy breakfast. Sally decided that she'd prefer to go work in the lab and let me sort out things with the PR lady. It was a cold rainy day outside so I dropped her off at the department before making my way back to the Admin block.
"Good morning professor," the receptionist greeted me brightly. "Carol's in the small conference room, second door on the right."
"Thanks," I replied with a nod, as I walked on past her.
I gave the door a knock and walked on in. Carol stood and held her hand out to me.
"Hi, I'm Carol Lampard. Won't you take a seat?"
She looked to be in her thirties, nicely tanned, her glossy black hair looking straight cut just under her ears. She was dressed in a dark blue business suit with a pale blue blouse and matching four-inch stilettoes.
I gave her well-manicured hand a brief shake and took the seat next to her.
"How may I help you?" she asked, as she resumed her seat.
I put the globe on the table before I replied, "I take it you haven't yet heard of my discovery? In the simplest terms I've discovered a Time Tunnel, something that lets you view history as it happened."
I could see from the slightly quizzical look she gave me that she hadn't understood. "What it means is the device will let you view any event in history that you tune it to. You want chariot races at the Coliseum or the Indy 500, it's all there."
"What, you mean like looking at a screen?"
"Yes, I can give you a demonstration if you want."
"Oh, I'll take your word, but it would be nice to see history being made if I could," she replied, her brow furrowed in thought.
"We can arrange that for later," I said smiling at her. "Right now, I want to find out if I'll be stepping on anyone's toes."
"I don't get you?"
"Can I do this myself? Make the announcement about what I've discovered or should I let the university make it?" I asked.
"Well, we can call a press conference for you, but I'll have to check with Andy, our manager, to get it officially sanctioned," she replied.
"Would he be busy now?" I asked.
"I don't know," she answered, glancing to the phone on the table.
"Could I talk to him do you think?"
"I- um, I'll see if he's free," she answered, reaching for the phone.
"Thanks," I replied.
"Oh hi Ann, could you put me through to Andy?" she asked.
...
"Thanks."
I heard the faint purr of the ring as she waited.
"Andy, hi, this is Carol. I've got Professor Lutner with me and he wants to know if we've got any plans regarding his discovery of the Time Tunnels?"
... The voice wasn't distinct enough to hear.
"Yes, Professor Steven Lutner," she confirmed, glancing at her tablet.
... His reply this time was quite short.
"Yes, we're on our way," she replied before replacing the handset. Looking up at me she said, "He'd like to see you."
"Oh," I said, a little surprised by the turn of events.
She stood, pushing her tablet into her bag as she turned and led the way. I held the door as we exited then widened my stride to catch her.
"I usually only deal with press relations," she confessed to me. "Write the press releases and do interviews with the reporters."
"That's the kind of support I'll need. My discovery is going to change the world and make me very unpopular in certain circles. I've opened a new Pandora's Box," I replied.
"How?" she asked.
"I'm going to cost you your privacy, that's the biggest problem. You can use it to spy on people as well. Anyone can watch you undress for bed or take a shower," I replied.
She stopped in her tracks. "Huh?"
"I'm afraid so, you, me and everyone in the world could use one to peek into anyone's bedroom," I explained.
"That won't be allowed surely," she said anxiously.
"It's the other side of the penny; if the government gets to control it, then I see an even darker future for us. It has to be in the hands of the people to keep the government in check," I answered, my calm voice belying the importance of the words.
"But we can't let people go around spying on people," she protested.
"No, I agree. But there's no way to prevent its misuse, it's going to be easy enough to build your own, if you can afford it."
"Oh, that's creepy, only the rich pervs-."
"Who'll have all the most beautiful women in the history of the world to drool over," I cut in.
"That's not the way most people will see it, it'll make everyone paranoid," she replied.
"I hope to circumvent that by putting tunnels in public places, libraries, civic buildings. In a generation they'll be ubiquitous, crime won't exist, capitalism will be tamed and politicians honest," I said confidently, taking her elbow and turning to walk on.
"All of them are good selling points, but privacy is going to be a big sticking point," she replied, walking on with me.
"Well, being a Peeping Tom will still be against the law. The police can use their Tunnels to check up on anybody who's suspected of misusing one, they won't have many real crimes to solve," I answered.
"I can't imagine a world like that, paranoia making people honest. Everyone mentally looking over their shoulder no matter where they are or what they're thinking of doing," she declared with a little shake of the head.
"The kids will soon adapt," I replied. "It's the rich and famous who are going to suffer through the change, for those of us who live normal honest boring lives, what are we doing to make us worth watching is the best message I can think of."
"Huh, tell them they're lives are worthless, they're too boring to be spied on?" she retorted, amused.
"Well I'm sure you could dress it up better than that. Or better still, bury it in the small print," I replied dryly.
We stopped at the end door and Carol knocked.
"Come," a voice called.
She opened the door and ushered me through, then followed. The whole of the back wall was glass, to our right was a desk and chairs and to our left stood Andy in a small group of easy chairs.
"Professor," he greeted me. "Come and sit here. I've been talking to your Head of Department about your little discovery. You're setting the worlds of History and Astronomy alight."
Carol hesitated and I put my hand in the small of her back and urged her forward as I took a step. I guided her in first and took the seat opposite Andy.
"Tea, Coffee?" he asked, as he sat.
"No thanks," I replied.
"Now, we think it should be used primarily as a research tool-," he started.
"I beg to differ," I interrupted. "I think the people have a right to free access. There's no other way to handle it if we're going to preserve human rights."
"Undoubtedly you've thought through the consequences of that?" he asked.
"Yes, I was discussing them with Carol just now. This has the potential to make society fair and just. No more war, no more crime, total oversight of our elected and appointed officials and the taming of capitalism. Against that is the loss of privacy, everybody knows everybody else's business. In a funny way I can see that turning into a bonus for future generations if it banishes prudery," I replied.
"The people can't take a culture shock like this; it'll cause all kinds of chaos. There could even be riots or revolution," he argued.
"Yes," I replied bluntly. "It's going to cause a massive social upheaval; I wish it could be avoided, but we need to get it out there before the powers that be try to suppress it. The loss of privacy is the lesser evil when compared to the loss of our freedom under some totalitarian government. I'd prefer to die as a martyr rather than a slave."
"You can't destroy civilisation because you think it's the right thing to do," he argued back. "The big picture-"
"The big picture is, this is a turning point in history. For better or worse the discovery has been made, the secret's out there. The spooks already have a working prototype of their own -"
"How did they get hold of it?" he asked alarmed.
"God only knows, they've probably got moles here. I've been expecting them to try to take over. That's why I'd like to get the news out there as soon as practical."
"That puts a different complexion on things, I thought we still had it contained in the scientific community," he replied somewhat subdued.
"Well, they've got a working model at GCHQ, I've seen it. At the moment, they're using it to track terrorists and good luck to them on that, but it's the ideal instrument to surveil the population for dissidence. Unless the public has oversight, it's a recipe for dictatorship."
"We know, Reg was really annoyed that you'd brought George in on it, it was hard keeping a damper on his enthusiasm. If we could have kept it as a physics phenomenon... But that's water under the bridge now, we're going to have to find a plan B," he said, his brows furrowed.
"Mass publicity and mass production," I said emphatically. "License the technology as widely as possible and start installing them in public places. I was going to emphasize the benefits in the elimination of crime and war-"
"That's one option, I hope there are others," he replied.
"No one's asking me, but I'd suggest building a couple of dozen models and give them to respected journalists and broadcasters. Programs like News Night, Brass Tacks, Horizon," Carol chimed in.
"That's a bit parochial, it would need world coverage, The Times of India, Der Spiegel, The Australian, the New York Times...," Andy countered.
"Wait up, I don't think the newspapers are independent enough, the pressure they'd face would be enormous. I'd like to see independent institutions have them, the World Court, the International Tribunal at The Hague," I said.
"How difficult are they to manufacture?" Andy queried.
"Not very, I used a 3D printer for the plastic parts and wound the coils myself, the CAD people designed and manufactured the plug in board and the students wrote the programs," I replied.
"So we could make more here on campus," he replied reflectively.
"Yes, I have four more cores built, if the CAD department can make more PCI cards the rest of the stuff is off the shelf. If you want to build more than that then we'd have to order more magnets, thankfully I used common ones so there should be no trouble with supply."
"I think I need to talk this over with Professor King, bring him up to speed and see where we go from here," Andy said, sitting forward in his chair.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Carol, leaning forward.
"I'd like her to start crafting a press release, call it contingency planning. I'd like to launch with a couple of demo devices. Today's Friday, if we order the parts for the four cores I've got we could have them assembled by the end of next week." I put in.
"Yes, but Carol, not a word to anybody yet," he replied, then looking back at me. "Go ahead and order what you need for the four, and while you're at it order enough magnets for a hundred more machines."
"Willingly, I'll also order more plastic for the printer."
"Yes," he replied a little absentmindedly as he got up.
I glanced over to see Carol rising as I stood. I let her go first and followed on with Andy bringing up the rear. I was intending to go back to the lab and start spending money but Carol stopped me as we got back to reception.
"Professor," she asked. "Could we go over the pros and cons again?"
"Yes of course," I replied.
"My office is down here," she said, indicating the opposite corridor.
We spent ten minutes running through what I saw as the benefits, countering the privacy question with the fact that even if the government controlled it, their privacy would be lost anyway.
Leaving her to make a start, I made my way back to the lab. I was looking forward to meeting up with Sally and seeing what she was up to. On the way into the building, the receptionist called me over.
"Professor."
"Yes," I answered, stopping and turning to her.
"Professor Ribble from the English department would like a word with you, she's phoned twice already this morning," she informed me.
"Has she left a number?"
