The Loop

by Ian Rochford

Professor Twombley eyed the gleaming brass and polished oak of the machine carefully and then lit his pipe, which had gone out while his friend Smithers was explaining his theory of Time/Gravity Convergence. "I follow most of your hypothesis, George, but just how do you propose to test it?" "It's quite simple, actually," replied Smithers, "and we can test it right now. I've installed eleven more of these devices around the campus, in a clockwise fashion as it were, and when I turn them on in sequence, I expect to see some sort of quantum anomaly manifest itself in the form of an interruption to the flow of time - though, I must admit I don't know what to expect, so we'll need to observe our chronometers carefully." He primed the main switch and closed the large connecting lever, causing the machine to hum with energy which increased exponentially as the other eleven machines came online and created a massive field surrounding the University. Professor Twombley eyed the gleaming brass and polished oak of the machine carefully and then lit his pipe, which had gone out while his friend Smithers was explaining his theory of Time/Gravity Convergence...

6S

Ian Rochford is an Australian screenwriter and writer of short stories. His full 6S catalogue is here.