==== chapter1 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda Papas, aboard the *Chawla* module en route to Mars, awoke to the simulated call of an extinct sparrow, a reminder of a home she preferred to leave behind. Unlike her crewmates, she found solace in the vastness of space, viewing it as endless potential, and engaged in mandatory video calls with Dr. Stein, the crew psychologist, to discuss her perspective. During morning calls with Mission Control, the crew navigated signal delays and bureaucracy, with physician Louisa Marcanta receiving a video greeting from her niece. They reported on progress, including Nedda’s hydroponics and rover activity on Mars, but quietly endured progressive astigmatism, a known side effect of prolonged space travel, which was worsening for engineer Evgeni and beginning to affect Nedda. Evgeni also noted unsettling energy spikes from Amadeus, the life support system, and requested detailed development specifications from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which arrived as an overwhelming "library" of data. Following daily exercise and Nedda's work with plants, the crew ate watery, flavorless cucumbers, the first produce from their hydroponics. Later, Nedda received an unexpected private video call from her mother, Betheen, who informed her of Desmond Prater’s death and Nedda's estranged friend Denny selling their shared childhood orange grove. This news evoked a rare emotional response from Nedda, who reflected on her past and complex relationship with Denny. Retreating to her cabin, Nedda sought to quiet thoughts of home and the past, finding a strange comfort in the module's operational sounds, embracing her present existence as "light, moving through the universe." ==== chapter2 - 1986: Seven (Статус: completed) ==== On the night of January 27, 1986, Nedda Papas sat with her father on their Chevette's hood, attempting to view Halley's Comet. Nedda’s father, whom she saw as all-knowing, explained why people called space "the heavens" and discussed the nature of stars. He had forgotten his promise to take Nedda to the Challenger shuttle launch the next morning, causing her significant disappointment despite his attempts to appease her with concessions like allowing her favorite music and a small alligator head souvenir. The next morning, Nedda, shivering in her classroom ten miles from Kennedy Space Center, was preoccupied with the upcoming shuttle launch, specifically Mission STS 51-L and Judith Resnik, whom she admired and wished to emulate. She harbored a simmering anger towards her father for his forgetfulness and her mother for being too busy to take her. As the TV was wheeled in for the broadcast, Nedda endured taunts and spitballs from classmates. In a moment of intense frustration, fueled by her research into forbidden words, she called Jimmy La Morte a "cunt." Immediately after her outburst, a loud pop emanated from the television, and the Challenger shuttle exploded on screen, disintegrating into smoke plumes and burning debris. The classroom fell silent as Nedda and her classmates watched the horror unfold, the image of the burning shuttle and the stunned reaction of the reporter confirming the tragedy. Mrs. Wheeler, visibly distressed, turned off the television. As Principal Lauder announced an early dismissal over the PA system, Nedda, clutching her homemade mission patch, tried to rationalize the event through her father's explanations of light and time, concluding that they hadn't truly seen it, only an "echo." Overwhelmed and feeling a vague sense of responsibility, she longed for the comfort of her father's presence and explanations, reflecting on her childhood dreams of space, now shattered by the loss of the astronauts, including Judy Resnik, the woman she had wanted to become. ==== chapter3 - 1986: Fabrication and Loss (Статус: completed) ==== Theo Papas, a scientist, struggled in his college lab with his "utter bastard" end-stage prototype, Crucible, its unwieldy form and his advancing psoriatic arthritis hindering his work. He yearned for his NASA days and the collaboration he shared with Avi Liebowitz, contrasting it with his current college situation where his work on half-life acceleration was misunderstood by Dean Babcock. Theo felt burdened by his declining health and the college's exploitation, yet found solace in his daughter Nedda's youthful potential, wishing to preserve her infinite discovery. Forced by a flare-up of his arthritis, Theo returned home, where his wife Betheen tearfully informed him of the Challenger space shuttle explosion. Their ensuing conversation revealed the strained dynamics of their marriage, as they processed the tragedy, discussing the risks involved and their differing emotional responses. Betheen then relayed the news that Nedda's school was dismissing early due to the incident, prompting Theo to cancel his class. Despite their emotional distance, evident in their separate discussions about their work—Theo's lectures and Betheen's intricate "water cake" project—Betheen eventually asked Theo to stay with her for a moment when a power surge, likely related to the launch, occurred. ==== chapter5 - 1986: Mico Argentatus (Статус: completed) ==== The world rushed by Nedda as she walked with Denny through the palmetto forest, heading away from school. She had remained silent since the assembly, grappling with a profound sense of loss and a "hole" inside her after the Challenger disaster. Words about the orbiter vehicle ("OV-099") and its many "firsts"—McCandless, Stewart, Sally Ride, Guion Bluford, the two women, the night launch and landing—formed a "bolus" of facts in her mind, constantly shifting from "is" to "was." She listed the astronauts' names: Scobee, McNair, Smith, Onizuka, Jarvis, McAuliffe, Resnik, acknowledging their loss. Denny, by contrast, remained easy and normal. He gathered wild coffee berries, a shared childhood activity, and praised Nedda's drawing of the Challenger patch, momentarily quieting her swirling thoughts. Both were reluctant to go home, Denny fearing repercussions for a failed math test, Nedda dreading the inevitable conversations about the day's tragedy. They detoured to Mr. Pete's yard, a collection of salvaged NASA parts and old machinery. Nedda was drawn to a tall, dull-gray launch sequencer, feeling a strange emotional pull as she touched its needle. Denny speculated about the explosion, suggesting a missile or Russian involvement, and wondered what it felt like, comparing it to a microwave, which Nedda quickly disproved with scientific explanation. Inside an old truck bed in the yard, they discovered a "silvery marmoset," green with algae from the nearby abandoned zoo. It was barely breathing. Nedda, both fearful and desiring the "scalp-ripping" creature, tried to touch it, but her fingers and a dipstick slipped past an invisible "bouncy pushback" or "bubble" around the monkey. The air seemed bent, and water droplets also missed it, leaving the monkey frozen and unblinking. Mr. Pete interrupted them, urging them home due to failing phone lines and power. Nedda briefly recalled the "blam" of the explosion, feeling the word was too small. As they walked away, Nedda recounted to Denny her father's dangerous project involving a large, metallic machine with floating legs. They passed a garishly painted house, and Denny noted the sky looked strange. Despite their unease, they eventually parted ways, Nedda still fighting the "anxious buzz" inside her, resisting tears. ==== chapter7 - 1986: Entropy (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda, deeply affected by the Challenger disaster, sought comfort from her father, burrowing into his chest. Though too tall to fully curl up, she found solace in his presence, asking about astronaut Judy Resnik. Her father, wincing from his swollen, painful hands, listened as Nedda recited facts about Resnik, finding it easier to speak than cry in the lab. To help her cope, her father allowed her to light flash paper, a shared, destructive ritual. He then attempted to explain his new machine, "Crucible," and the concept of "entropy"—the progression from order to disorder. He described Crucible's ability to manipulate energy, suggesting it could "stop time" or prevent decay, subtly hinting at his own deteriorating hands and a desire to keep Nedda from growing up too fast. Nedda pressed him about the astronauts' fate, and he theorized their thoughts and impulses might persist as heat and light, traveling through the universe. Later, Nedda observed the strained communication between her parents via a laundry chute. Her mother, Betheen, struggled to unplug a mixer from an outlet her father had previously shorted. Nedda joined her, and after a physical struggle that sent them tumbling, Betheen briefly shared her own sorrow over the disaster. Betheen then turned her energy to an experimental "Champagne Water Cake" for a competition, inviting Nedda to help. That evening, Nedda recorded her day's observations in a notebook, listing unusual details like a monkey, the sky's color, and entropy. She then composed a letter to Judy Resnik, reflecting on the astronaut's essence as "gas, carbon, and star parts," transforming into light and heat, spreading across the universe—a comforting thought that even in death, Resnik's light would reach the moon, making it less lonely. Dinner remained quiet and uncomfortable. ==== chapter8 - 1986: The Dogs (Статус: completed) ==== The air smelled foul to Rebekah La Morte, not only of dog piss but of something unsettlingly unknown. Her greyhounds, usually fragile, appeared flat and unwell, a concern given an impending buyer. She chastised her whiny son, Jimmy, for neglecting to clean the kennels, confirming his oversight upon finding a large pile of feces in Mama Girl's enclosure. The sky turned an unusual yellow, smelling of hurricane despite the season, which Rebekah connected to the recent space shuttle disaster, deciding Jimmy would stay home from school. Mama Girl’s whimpers then drew Rebekah’s attention to the "pond" behind their house, an overflow receptacle for Easter’s sewer system. Rebekah observed clouds rolling off the water, sawgrass rotting, and the pond boiling despite the cold, suspecting "governmental bullshit." As Jimmy confirmed the pond's boiling nature after bringing in the pups, including the runt Bats, the frogs began to scream. ==== chapter9 - 1986: Bruise and Tape (Статус: completed) ==== Denny arrived unexpectedly at Nedda’s window with a severe bruise across his face and a nearly swollen-shut eye. Nedda let him in, pressing him for details about his injury, which he largely dismissed, instead asking how she knew about Jimmy La Morte. Their conversation veered from Denny’s willingness to fight for Nedda to their differing perspectives on intelligence and the afterlife. Nedda’s mother, Betheen, interrupted with a phone call, suggesting an unexpected guest was coming, then subtly gave Nedda frozen peas for Denny's eye, feigning unawareness of his presence. The children then discussed Nedda's father’s machine, which could supposedly manipulate entropy or time. Denny wished he could stop or rewind time to get fireworks or reverse the Challenger disaster, picturing a perfect reassembly. Nedda, however, envisioned a more disquieting, "twisted mess" if things were put back together, reflecting on the fragility of a cassette tape that thinned and crinkled with too much rewinding. They examined Nedda’s mission patches, dwelling on the recent shuttle explosion with a mix of childlike understanding and quiet dread. As Denny drifted to sleep on the floor, Nedda shivered from the unusual cold and contemplated her father’s work, the enduring nature of the Prater family’s orange grove, and the pervasive sense of brokenness symbolized by the shattered shuttle and a ruined tape. ==== chapter10 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Aboard the *Chawla* colony ship, Evgeni discovered that power spikes were caused by the use of cheaper strontium instead of plutonium in the life support systems, a critical issue that could lead to failure upon landing. Nedda expressed frustration over the shoddy craftsmanship and the rushed timeline of their mission, exacerbated by Earth's climate crises, but Evgeni insisted they, as a small, effective crew, could fix the mechanical problem. Concurrently, both Evgeni and Nedda experienced progressive vision loss, despite measures like pressure suits and sleep sacks. Nedda prepared for her mandatory "sleep week," which was intended to slow vision loss, ease the passage of time, and boost morale, but which she deeply resented as a loss of her life and felt like a "sample in a study." Marcanta, a crewmate, gently assisted Nedda with the sleep procedure, playing "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys at Nedda's request. As the tranquilizers took effect, Nedda, floating disembodied, dreamed of her childhood hometown, which she saw consumed by kudzu and forgotten by the outside world, a vision that left her with a profound sense of unease and loss. ==== chapter11 - 1986: Dawning (Статус: completed) ==== Early one morning, Theo began his work by checking background radiation and suiting up before preparing a small sample of cesium-137 for his machine, Crucible. He activated the device, which began to spin, causing a cold breeze. Unexpectedly, the metal drum itself began to radiate a growing, clear, lemon-yellow light, captivating Theo, who rapidly noted observations despite his trembling hands and racing heart. He reflected on his projects as physical manifestations of his mind, distinct from children, and felt a profound wonder at what he had created. At six seventeen A.M., Theo deactivated Crucible. The machine had withstood the force and the building had not shorted. Upon placing a probe inside the drum, he discovered that the cesium sample’s rate of decay had significantly slowed. This finding filled Theo with an unprecedented, pure joy, causing him to "whoop" and tremble with emotion. He envisioned sharing the news and conducting further tests, acknowledging the importance of rigorous validation. He then mused on the broader implications of his invention, imagining a future free from physical decay and mental decline. Reflecting on his creation, Theo concluded that inventions were objective manifestations of one’s best thoughts, always "yours." His laughter resonated down the empty hallway. ==== chapter12 - 1986: Grove and Light (Статус: completed) ==== Waking to Denny’s face at 5:15 AM, Nedda was told he needed to go to the grove to fix something belonging to his dad. Despite her desire to stay for breakfast, Denny insisted he needed her help to repair a machine he had "busted" before his father arrived and had someone else fix it. She knew he would go alone if she refused, so she reluctantly agreed. As they biked to the orange grove, Nedda noted the strange, early winter brightness, linking it to an explosion and the moon Judy Resnik would have liked for navigation. Upon reaching the grove’s gravel entrance, Denny scaled the fence, and Nedda saw a sick-looking yellow-green glow over the trees, with the haze of sprinklers above. She tore her pants climbing the fence before following Denny to a giant metal shed. Nedda, being scrawny, squeezed through a crack in the shed door to turn on the lights. Inside, Denny went to a "pruner," a tractor-like machine with circular saw blades that resembled the *Challenger*'s Canadarm. He claimed the machine had simply stopped while he was driving it, after he rolled into a puddle, and his dad had to tow it back. Worried about his father's reaction, especially with the recent frost, Denny needed to fix it himself. He asked Nedda to retrieve some hoses and a knife from the tool cabinet. As Nedda searched, a line of sprinklers turned on, and a brilliant green-yellow light, heavier and thicker than mist, shot across Denny from the open door. Nedda ducked behind a tractor as the light enveloped Denny, blinding her. She experienced fierce cold, lost her breath, and endured retinal burn. When her vision returned, Denny was still there, but his form blurred and stretched, his hands and arms appearing larger and thinner. He began violently beating and kicking the pruner, rapidly changing, his hair becoming unkempt, a bald patch appearing above his ear. The pruner itself rapidly rusted and peeled as if months had passed. Nedda tried to reach him but was blocked by an invisible, warm, slick, jellyfish-like bubble that trapped Denny. Inside, he continued to blur and age, showing healed scars and torn shoes, his eyes hungry and lost. Realizing this was no longer the Denny she knew, and overwhelmed by a fear for him and the prospect of being left alone, Nedda shouted that she would get help. She ran for the back door and her bike, promising to return. ==== chapter13 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda's dream-eye drifted, searching for her missed town. A seismic hiccup from the launch and then an electric shock from Crucible coursed through her, manifesting as a vitreous anomaly: time made liquid. This gelatinous substance flowed through power lines and then water systems, distorting the world as it spread through Easter. It dripped from a frayed wire into Pete McIntyre’s truck, collecting as shimmering, miniature universes, before expanding through the town’s pipes and irrigation, affecting Prater Citrus. Nedda watched fruits shrivel and rot, and trees decay and sprout anew. Little Mike Costas witnessed similar temporal reversals in the groves, believing he was having a stroke before calling Desmond Prater. Nedda then awoke aboard Chawla with a severe headache. During a saline drip administered by Marcanta, Nedda’s medical printer dispensed an old-world glaucoma treatment, Acetazolamide, in addition to her usual medication. Marcanta explained the printer was acting as a backup, issuing precautionary meds based on accumulated data. Later, Nedda found Amit (Singh) analyzing data. He revealed that the Amadeus life support generator was malfunctioning due to an uncalibrated fuel swap from plutonium-238 to strontium-90. This dramatically decreased the half-life of their power, meaning their life support systems would fail approximately six months before reaching their destination. Singh confirmed they were too far out for a return to Mars or a rendezvous. He speculated the fuel swap was a political maneuver, part of a bidding war between European and American governments over colonist spots on Fortitude. Despite the lethal radiation risk and lack of experience, Nedda requested the Amadeus specs, resolving to fix the generator herself, asserting they were in charge. ==== chapter14 - 1986: Firecracker Dance (Статус: completed) ==== Annie Prater cherished her secret visits to the Mariposa Cinema in Cocoa, a deco-style theater where she found solitude and felt "more" during dollar matinees, using small deceptions to hide the expense from her husband, Des. Her favorite film, *Holiday Inn*, particularly Fred Astaire's firecracker dance, offered an escape, despite its problematic elements. On this particular day, she drove toward the cinema instead of picking up her son, Denny, from his first co-ed sleepover. This decision was implicitly linked to Des having recently hit Denny. Annie rationalized Des's action as a one-time disciplinary measure meant to toughen their son, even drawing a parallel to her own father's strictness, though a deep unease persisted. As she drove, her radio was static, and she thought of the "poor astronauts," attributing her son's sleepover to a need for fun. She encountered unexpected traffic, which she attributed to people heading to Kennedy after an "accident." Despite the delay, she remained intent on reaching the movie, her thoughts drifting between mundane errands and the violence, wrestling with her conflicting desires for Denny—wanting him to be soft and kind like Astaire, rather than tough like Des. She ultimately fantasized about disappearing in the flash and smoke of firecrackers. ==== chapter15 - Protraction (Статус: completed) ==== A sudden flash of lightning and water from sprinklers left the protagonist soaking wet and feeling antsy, like he'd consumed too much coffee. He found himself unable to move forward, blocked by an invisible, warm wall, while Nedda, nearby, appeared utterly still, like a paused VCR. He yelled and screamed for her, but she remained unresponsive. Days passed, which he tried to measure by counting seconds and writing in the dirt, all while Nedda moved only imperceptibly, in extreme slow motion; her head turned, and her mouth opened a little, but her movements were so drawn out as to be almost imperceptible. He noted that her movements coincided with cold sensations, while his own sweating seemed to halt her. He observed a fly paused mid-air, every detail visible, confirming that everything but him was still. He laughed, then cried, then began methodically dismantling the pruner, cutting himself, and sucking his blood. Weeks turned into a month or more, yet he survived without food or drink, his body seemingly immune to the usual effects. A deep rumbling in his chest signaled Nedda's impossibly slow shout. He clung to the hope that her smart father could fix their situation. He sat and waited, singing songs and counting details for what he estimated was another week. After a month or so, Nedda's hand finally touched the invisible barrier, her torn cuticle and a red stain visible. He tried to recall movie dialogue. A year in, his shoes were too tight, his pants torn, and he pulled hairs from his arms for comfort. He sometimes remembered his voice worked and called her name. Her arm was closer at times, but her movement was inconsistent, sometimes leaping a foot, other times nothing. He talked to her, but she never answered. He bit his fingernails and ate the chewings, his voice cracking when he shouted. Nedda eventually placed her hand against the 'bubble,' his home, the wall of heat. He touched it but felt nothing. She was gone, and he felt somewhere else too, crying and dreaming of them together. He pulled out more hair, including roots and skin. He screamed for days until coughing up blood. It took Nedda months, maybe a year, to walk away, her back turning to him. He pounded on the invisible barrier. Her shadow took a week to disappear. He ceased speaking for years, no longer looking for her by the fifth or seventh year. He slept in the pruner, which rusted around him, his shoes on the ground because they no longer fit. He simply waited. ==== chapter16 - 1986: The Thread (Статус: completed) ==== Betheen, a chemist, precisely weighed kanten flakes using a triple-beam balance, a tool once used for poisons, purchased with wedding money, now a source of tactile comfort. She mused on her long marriage, seeing it as a habit, a love transformed from fire to a warm sweater. Her passion for chemistry fueled an ambition to invent new recipes, particularly a "champagne water cake" using agar, which she believed could win a concept cake competition and connect her with her daughter, Nedda—a secret love language of chemists. Betheen, who presented herself as a folksy baker despite her scientific mind, missed her chemist husband, Theo, who understood her, and longed for the awe he once held for her. Driving to deliver cookies, Betheen observed an unnatural brightness in the sky, likely from NASA. She left muffins for Nedda and Denny, reflecting on her difficult relationship with Nedda. Encountering a traffic jam, she spoke with Annie Prater, whose son Denny was with Betheen's family. The road ahead was blocked by wild, encroaching vegetation, and police phones were down. They attempted a detour onto Satsuma Drive, which proved to be "deeply wrong," covered in unseasonable ice. A semi jackknifed, and a reporter’s car spun into it, then into a canal. Betheen felt an intense, almost chemical pull to the dying man. Pete McIntyre restrained her from trying to save him, confirming he was already dead. Shaken, Betheen observed the scene, noting the dead man's wedding band and the connection she felt to him—a fragile bond like "van der Waals forces" pulling her to the dying. Rejecting Pete's offer to drive her home, Betheen insisted on walking alone to clear her head. She pressed at the bruise on her chest from the seatbelt, feeling the man again and the "two threads" that spun out into the world: one to her deceased child, Michael, a source of lingering pain and guilt, and the other to Nedda, a carbon-carbon covalent bond, strong and enduring. ==== chapter17 - 1986: Into the Mouth (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda desperately rode her bike to her father’s lab, seeking his help for her friend Denny. Denny was trapped within an invisible, elastic field that caused him to age and vibrate rapidly, heating up like a marshmallow in a microwave. Nedda recalled a similar static sensation from a stationary "monkey." Terrified, she cut through the decaying Island Paradise amusement park, observing its nature-reclaimed ruins and passing through the concrete mouth of a giant tiki head, a journey that made her feel more afraid than brave. Upon reaching her father, Nedda, sobbing, tried to explain Denny’s horrifying state—the flash of light, the blurring, the intense, rapid movement, and how she couldn't reach him after the sprinklers went off. She related it to an earlier incident where Pop Prater had hit Denny. Her father, however, was preoccupied and happy, asserting that his machine, "Crucible," had worked successfully after fixing "grounding problems" and "residual motion from a test." He dismissed Nedda's frantic account, suggesting she calm down and breathe, and did not appear to believe her. Nedda realized her father's machine, designed to manipulate chaos and decay, was likely responsible for Denny's accelerated state. In a fit of anger and frustration at his disbelief, Nedda squeezed his hand until he swore, then began throwing lab equipment, blaming the Crucible. She then fled, feeling her father had betrayed her by hurting Denny and not listening. After falling from her bike, her mother, Betheen, found her. Nedda recounted the events again, and her mother, despite having been in a car accident, listened and believed her. Betheen validated Nedda's experience, promising they would "figure it out" and instructing her to write down everything she saw while she spoke to Nedda's father and Denny's mother. Nedda then began to write in her notebook, grappling with the inexplicable events and her fear for Denny. ==== chapter18 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Marcanta proposed a "spinal tap" to Evgeni to alleviate his eye problem, suggesting weekly procedures to decrease cerebrospinal fluid volume and pressure, despite Evgeni’s concern about "nuclear bomb" headaches. Nedda volunteered, but Marcanta refused, stating Nedda was "precious cargo" and not good data. Evgeni then suggested Singh, whom Marcanta dismissed as "a baby." During a discussion about the failing Amadeus drive, Nedda and Evgeni shared humorous banter about Marcanta’s aggressive approach and Evgeni’s perceived need for help. Later, in the hydro lab, the three analyzed the Amadeus drive. They discovered that the strontium isotope swap caused the drive to decay too quickly, generating excessive energy that spun the system too fast. This centrifugal force pulled a rod aside, creating friction and heat, leading to power spikes. When the heat built up, the metal expanded, pushing the rod back to its original position, causing the power spike to drop. They realized that while replacing the part was an option, the radiation dose would be fatal within days. Singh's idea of flooding the chamber was helping, but continuous spikes risked the water heating up and exploding. Nedda compared it to an old, faulty pressure cooker. Amidst her homesickness, Nedda received a small, green pill from the lab printer, a "stronger derivative of propranolol" for anxiety and glaucoma. She swallowed it, feeling a gentle, blanketing warmth, finding a momentary sense of home in the artificial comfort. As Mission Control appeared on screen, silent on their true struggles, Nedda noted Evgeni was laughing after she gently tugged his hair, a subtle gesture of affection. ==== chapter19 - 1986: Oscillation (Статус: completed) ==== Theo Papas discovered his experimental device, Crucible, was running uncontrollably, an uncanny, oleaginous sensation preventing him from shutting it off. His injured hand throbbed as he contemplated Nedda’s terrified confirmation of its movement and her correct observation that Crucible was active. Realizing the machine’s effects were bleeding out of the lab, Theo was interrupted by Pete McIntyre, who informed him that Theo's wife, Betheen, was in a car accident but unharmed, while also mentioning strange environmental phenomena like a frozen canal and overgrown trees. Pete drove Theo to Prater Citrus, where Theo was horrified to witness Denny Prater, Nedda’s friend, trapped in a violent temporal anomaly, rapidly aging and reversing, appearing frantic and disfigured. The grove’s trees also pulsed, cycling through their lifespans. Overwhelmed and physically ill, Theo deduced that Crucible’s impact extended through water systems and that its "perfect" system meant if Denny sped up, something else had slowed. Desperate to fix it, Theo instructed Pete to gather copper and iron. Back in his lab, Theo reflected on his past lies to Nedda and his original intention to preserve life and time with Crucible, especially in light of his deceased son, Michael. He sought to "rewind" the anomaly, feeling both pain and an "ugly, yet welcome" delight in Crucible’s functionality. As he worked to counter the surge, Theo considered the full extent of Crucible’s reach. Disregarding his own rule, Theo reached out and touched Crucible’s cool, glowing light. The device ruptured, blinding and collapsing him. Through an agonizing yet clarifying transformation, Theo's body receded through time, his thoughts becoming pure electricity, as he was utterly "swallowed by his existence." ==== chapter20 - Potential (Статус: completed) ==== H's life assaulted him, every atom fiercely aware as he underwent a monstrous physical transformation, his being healing and reversing, electrical pulses rushing backward. He choked on a glut of memory, skipping through time. He was thirteen, listening to Glenn Miller with his father; then twenty, watching his father cough to death after a failed lung operation, fearing being alone and unloved. He recalled school after his father's death and the inability to afford a proper headstone, remembering how at thirty-two, he opened a checking account with $523, never withdrawing it, seeing it as his father's grave marker. His body continued to warp, contracting and expanding with compressed time. He heard footsteps and voices calling "Theo," then "Professor." He then became "Teddy," a child who wished to hide his hands and could not pronounce his disease. As an old man, he could not recall his name but remembered a woman and a profoundly missed little girl, whose familiar feet he recognized. He relived being eleven, older boys urinating on him in the shower at Camp Tamiami, not fighting back. He wept for a little girl he did not yet know or had forgotten, whose gap-toothed image and soft fingers were carved into his memory, feeling a hole in him and the certainty that he had hurt her, though he did not know how. He reflected that boys were brutal, beating with their bodies, while girls broke one "just by living." ==== chapter21 - 1986: Kinetic (Статус: completed) ==== Desmond Prater awoke with an aching back, correlating his physical discomfort with the health of his orange groves, as his father had taught him. His wife, Annie, had left their bed due to his hitting their son, Denny, for joyriding on an expensive pruner. Desmond, who justified his actions by comparing them to his own stern upbringing, found Annie and Denny gone from the house. After failing to make breakfast, he decided to go to a diner, but was interrupted by a dazed call from Little Mike Costas, reporting a strange problem with the trees. Driving to the grove, Desmond observed his trees "doing the wave," shriveling, sprouting, and rapidly changing. At the equipment shed, his men stood fearfully outside. Desmond opened the door to discover Denny inside, uncontrollably transforming in size and age, blurring into indistinct shapes, then solidifying. Horrified and guilt-ridden over his last harsh words to his son, Desmond closed the shed door, ordering his men to guard it and wrap other trees, despite strange reports of burst pipes and inexplicable obstructions like hedges. Overwhelmed by a sense of cowardice, he resolved to find Annie. On his way, he encountered a traffic jam caused by an accident, connecting it to the odd reports and wondering about the presence of Pete McIntyre and Theo Papas at his grove. ==== chapter22 - 1986: Child and Man (Статус: completed) ==== Betheen picked her way through a decaying, kitschy amusement park, her car broken and a dead man nearby, reflecting on a past gas explosion that singed her and the subsequent emptiness she felt after Michael's death. She considered her "distance mothering" philosophy for her daughter, Nedda, which encouraged "safe trouble." Her thoughts then shifted to Theo, her husband, a physics teaching assistant whom she met in college. She recalled how she had fallen in love with his intellect, his distinct writing, and eventually seduced him after exams, drawn to his unique qualities, including his psoriasis. Entering Theo's dark lab, Betheen found an enormous, glowing machine emitting a strange, tart chemical odor. She called for Theo, but instead saw a six- or seven-year-old boy behind the machine, whom she recognized as Theo from old photographs by his distinct ears, hair, and psoriasis. This boy then rapidly transformed, growing into the young, angular man she had married, prompting Betheen to feel both lust and profound sorrow for his unknowing future. As the machine intensified, causing Theo's body to distort and writhe, he regressed further, ultimately becoming a quiet infant, in whom Betheen perceived features of Michael. An insistent inner voice urged Betheen to "Get up," "Think," "Find the pattern," and "Fix it," and she resolved to observe the impossible scene. ==== chapter23 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Singh initially refused to undergo a spinal fluid draw, necessary to test a procedure Marcanta intended for the "Gappers," suggesting Papas or Evgeni instead. Marcanta insisted a "Gapper" could not be tested on first, and that Singh or Louisa were the required baseline subjects. Singh eventually conceded after three hours on an exercise bike, acknowledging his fear. In the medical bay, Nedda assisted Marcanta with the procedure on a vulnerable Singh, who was strapped to the table. As Marcanta guided Nedda's hand to locate the correct spot on Singh's spine and then inserted the needle, Nedda attempted to comfort Singh by reciting a long list of British and Scottish expletives, which Singh occasionally repeated. The fluid draw was successful, yielding clear fluid, a "champagne tap." Nedda reflected on missing her mother and familiar Earth comforts like a kitchen telephone. Later, Singh woke with a headache, moaning from the light and noise. Nedda comforted him by holding his feet, a gesture that reminded her of her own mother and brought her a renewed sense of purpose, despite her typically unmaternal nature. Marcanta then asked Nedda if she believed she could perform the fluid draw on her, a skill Nedda reluctantly affirmed she possessed. Nedda mused on the ship Chawla's critical failures, including issues with its accelerated radioisotope thermoelectric generator and a monumental oversight regarding zero gravity, realizing the importance of their work for species survival. Following her reflections, Nedda messaged Mission Control requesting a private video call with her mother, using a coded phrase about needing a refresher on how to pop a bubble. ==== chapter24 - 1986: The Dead (Статус: completed) ==== Marty Neuhaus, a sweating funeral director, struggled with a delivery and the unexplained absence of his assistant, Reg Peterson. Marty attributed Reg's non-appearance to oversleeping and found himself moving supplies alone, while also preparing for a client. Reg, conversely, had spent three days unable to locate his usual highway exit for Easter, despite repeated attempts, believing he was sick or that phone lines were overloaded due to news of a shuttle explosion, which prevented him from reaching Marty. On the third day, Reg spoke to Rowenna, a waitress at a Howard Johnson's, about the missing exit, discovering a shared sense of being a transient "stop on the way to somewhere else." Reg invited Rowenna to search for the exit with him, and they eventually drove to Ft. Lauderdale. Reg abandoned his old profession, finding satisfaction in selling office supplies, believing his previous job had involved "too many bodies." Rowenna later recognized his bizarre story as an elaborate way to ask her out. Back at the funeral home, Marty, while preparing Mrs. Lattimer's body, witnessed the Y-shaped incision on her chest spontaneously stitch itself closed, her bones clunking, and her bruising fading. Terrified, Marty fled to the Bird's Eye bar, seeking comfort from Ellery Rees, the bartender. Marty recounted the impossible event to a skeptical Ellery, who attributed it to stress and suggested Marty take a break, also noting that the phone lines were out. Soon after, another patron, Eddie Ingram, entered, reporting a local accident and declaring the roads out of town inexplicably impassable, mirroring Reg's earlier struggle with the missing exit. ==== chapter25 - 1986: Pete McIntyre (Статус: completed) ==== Pete McIntyre was certain of his resilience in the face of disaster, of Rita's lasting attachment to him, and that Denny Prater's death was unnatural and undeserved. He'd liked Denny, a surprising sentiment given the boy's father, Desmond Prater, whom Pete considered a contemptible man. Pete, like other McIntyre men, was accustomed to starting over, having worked various jobs, including fixing cars and salvaging "space junk" from NASA, which he saw as akin to keeping cars running. He was deeply affected by Denny's death, feeling it in his chest, a pain worse than the Challenger disaster. Theo Papas had told Pete he needed copper to "fix it," prompting Pete to search his garage, where he kept his valuable salvage. He recalled Denny and Theo's daughter, Nedda, frequently visiting his yard. Denny, despite resembling his father, was fascinated by engines, and Nedda, though talkative, was observant and careful, reminding Pete of himself. He noted Denny's adoration for Nedda, a stark contrast to Desmond Prater's self-absorption, believing his allowance of their innocent interactions made him a better man. Pete began dismantling a commercial AC unit for copper, reflecting on the urgency of Denny's state—"No boy should have to stay like that." He also recalled a previous incident involving Betheen Papas in a wreck and being dragged to the grove by her husband, Theo. What he had seen in an equipment shed, presumably related to Denny, should not have happened. Determined to help the good kid, Pete resolved to tear apart his entire house for copper if necessary. ==== chapter26 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Aboard the *Chawla*, Nedda experienced headaches from spinal taps performed by Marcanta during her drug-induced sleep, her body's cells feeling half-alive. Marcanta spoke of vivid dreams, while Nedda, whose vision was failing, found herself plagued by the increasing lack of gravity. Marcanta reacted poorly to the news of Nedda's deteriorating eyes, acknowledging their dire situation despite Nedda's attempt to offer comfort about their progress on Amadeus. They discussed the high radiation risks associated with fixing Amadeus and resigned themselves to a noble, but likely fatal, mission. Nedda, receiving no messages from Mission Control, suspected her communications were screened. Evgeni, despite his own worsening eyesight, displayed cheerful resilience, discussing the terraforming efforts on the planet below. He proposed a plan to jettison the cooling water for Amadeus and use the *Chawla*'s cargo arm to force a rod back into place, a brute-force approach that would leave them without a crucial landing cushion. Singh, after watching a video of his sister's wedding, retreated into himself. Nedda, noticing his grief, crafted a purple flower for him from nitrile gloves, leading to a candid conversation where Singh revealed Evgeni's Amadeus plan was failing due to a "force field" around the drive. He confessed to coddling Evgeni and shared his own familial loss, mirroring Nedda’s pain over her deceased father. As Evgeni’s sight deteriorated further, he stopped wearing his goggles, navigating by feel. During a call with Mission Control, public affairs officer Landon Chauncey questioned Evgeni's health, to which Evgeni cheerily responded by exposing a critical error: the life support system contained strontium instead of plutonium, leading to a heated argument. Evgeni asserted the *Chawla* crew's control over information flow, believing they could jeopardize colonization efforts if they went silent. Nedda supported Evgeni's defiance, demanding to speak to her mother without psychiatric clearance. Later, Nedda ran on the treadmill, mapping new constellations, when Evgeni approached her, having turned off his reader. He admitted to deliberately lying about a family history of glaucoma to secure his place on the mission, revealing he had managed his expectations of blindness and found relief in not staring at screens. He described seeing the world impressionistically and teased Nedda about her secretiveness, suspecting she was plotting something and trying to contact her mother for an "outside voice" regarding Amadeus. They discussed their differing views on death and belief, with Nedda sharing her father's belief that souls are light traveling through the universe. Nedda felt a potential breakthrough about Amadeus and received a message from Dr. Stein, indicating her request to contact her mother had been received. ==== chapter27 - 1986: Books (Статус: completed) ==== Betheen informed her daughter, Nedda, that her father, Theo, had been in a machine accident, not a car accident. Nedda, sharp and demanding, insisted Betheen fix it, implying that another boy, Denny, was similarly affected. Despite her fear and lack of a solution, Betheen promised to fix both Theo and Denny, driven by Nedda's unwavering expectation. After discovering their phone line was dead while trying to contact a colleague of Theo's, Betheen and Nedda began searching Theo's chaotic basement lab for his notebooks, hoping to find clues. Betheen, recalling her past involvement in typing Theo's scientific work, instructed Nedda to look for specific symbols and equations related to entropy, a concept Theo had told Nedda his machine was designed to control. As they searched, Betheen reflected on her complex marriage to Theo, their shared scientific past, and her own struggles with motherhood, particularly her delayed bond with Nedda following the loss of their son, Michael. Nedda eventually found a crucial, frantic notebook containing an equation and a crude drawing of a mushroom cloud, confirming the dangerous nature of Theo's work on entropy. Betheen noted the word "oscillating" as key to Theo's current state. A neighbor, Annie Prater, then arrived, inquiring about Denny and expressing concern over a recent, strange accident. Betheen, despite her internal turmoil and the spreading implications of Theo's machine, lied to Annie, reassuring her that Denny was fine and had gone to school. Annie, unsettled, recounted bizarre reports from an undertaker about reanimated bodies and impassable roads. Maintaining her composure, Betheen dismissed Annie, then resolved to take Nedda and the critical notebook to see Theo. ==== chapter28 - Protraction (Статус: completed) ==== A being experienced a thousand years of great pressure and pulling, awakening to the sensation of skin, coldness, then a burning that lasted decades. Without language, he knew only intense sound and light, wondrous yet painfully new as muscles contracted. His thousand years before had been water, gentle heartbeats, and calm mumblings from beyond the dark; now, light and sound exploded, revealing a keenly clear, familiar murmur—her voice—without barrier. He reveled, unknowingly, in the piercing light and sound, every seismic sensation pulling and pinching his skin. Softness, rough compared to the water, rested on his back, while a jab to his lower reach introduced new sensation. A deeper, vibrating sound, familiar yet newly structured, joined the cacophony. His taut skin strained for years, months, and seconds in a violent, equally loved and hated unfolding, each sensitivity analyzed. Brutal pressure in his center, strong as when he was pulled from the water, ran through his extremities. For weeks, perhaps two millennia, he listened to the jangling, crashes, beeps, and whooshing of his surroundings, interwoven with the warmer, twin vibrations—the clarion and the deep—loving them, and even the pressure, twisting, yanking, pricking, and sting, with great joy. Dialogue then broke the experience: "It's an impossible decision, but you're sparing him suffering. I'll leave you with him. Take as much time as you need." "Oh." "I love you. I ..." "Goodbye, Michael." As the sounds softened and warmed, he devoured their feel until his skin, barely clinging cell to cell, could no longer contain him. The pressure in his chest became warm and good, then painfully happy, and then it stopped. His final thought erupted with elation and light, a burst lasting longer than anything he had known. His hour had been joy, all of it. ==== chapter29 - 1986: Infancy and Age (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda, accompanied by her mother Betheen, hurried to a science lab where her father, Theo, was experiencing rapid, violent shifts through different ages, appearing from infancy to extreme old age. Nedda grappled with the terrifying phenomenon, attempting to understand it through scientific analogies like soap bubbles and water cake, while Betheen, though outwardly calm, explained it with a "sine curve" diagram. Betheen tried to comfort Nedda by recounting stories of Theo's past, their meeting in college, and her own abandoned aspirations in chemistry. During moments of relative clarity, Theo, his body wracked with pain and rapidly deteriorating, desperately tried to convey instructions to fix the malfunctioning machine, "Crucible," mentioning poisonous gases, a "sinkhole," and the need for copper, iron, and a stable power source. To spare Nedda from witnessing her father's full physical collapse, Betheen forcibly removed her from the lab, vividly describing the horrific process of his aging and decay. As they left, Nedda observed that a nearby road had been inexplicably destroyed, which Betheen attributed to Theo's "genius" and its wider impact. Exhausted, Betheen allowed Nedda to lead them away through a narrow path in the woods. ==== chapter30 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Aboard *Chawla*, Nedda underwent a vitrectomy, opting to remain awake to fully experience the sensation, a need intensified by their distance from Earth. Marcanta performed the procedure, assisted by Singh, who had fashioned a makeshift halo brace. During preparation, Nedda reflected on the unique, fading boundaries of her crewmates, their "nascent selves," and the quiet understanding of their childless, sacrificial existence. After the surgery, Nedda recuperated while Marcanta provided a mission update, revealing delays for "Fortitude" and a blaming discourse between Earth governments regarding *Chawla*'s plutonium. Nedda then had a scheduled call with her mother, Betheen, who appeared thin from Earth-side hardships. Nedda requested her deceased father's old equation from an unfinished notebook, giving a thinly veiled excuse about "spiking energy" in one of *Chawla*'s drives. Betheen implicitly understood Nedda's true, more urgent need, and they shared a poignant moment discussing her father's legacy and their shared past, with Betheen expressing her anxieties about Nedda's dangerous life in space. After the call, Nedda located a dejected Singh. She gave him the copied equation, urging him to meticulously check all calculations to fix the drive issue, underscoring the critical stakes with a stark warning: "Or boom." ==== chapter31 - 1986: Mr. Pete’s House (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda and her mother, Betheen, arrived at Mr. Pete’s house, their crumpled Cadillac revealing a recent accident. Mr. Pete, a "rat person" who collected and fixed discarded items, had a garage and yard filled with various parts and a flickering light that distorted his shadow. Betheen explained they needed his help for Nedda’s father’s "project," claiming his hands were acting up, but internally warned Nedda not to reveal their father's true condition, stating they needed Mr. Pete's assistance. Nedda, observing the environment and her mother's forced sweetness, knew they were lying. Mr. Pete inquired if Nedda had been "with Denny," subtly hinting at the real trouble. Nedda, aware of the gravity of the situation—Denny was in pain, pulling his hair, and her father was also severely afflicted—attempted to assert that "He’ll be fine," feeling the burden of maintaining hope. Betheen then specified they needed a stable power supply, mentioning a generator Mr. Pete had lent previously for an electromagnet. While Betheen discussed specifics with Mr. Pete, Nedda excused herself to the bathroom and instead explored his house. She noticed disconnected telephones, believed to be from Kennedy or Mission Control, and artifacts like Neil Armstrong’s foot casts. In the kitchen, she found a Challenger mission patch on the table, a shared interest with Mr. Pete that made her realize she, too, was a "rat person." Outside, in the bed of an old flatbed truck, Nedda discovered a still marmoset. She then found her father’s notebook, which contained observations on her own childhood development, followed by increasingly desperate scientific entries. These notes detailed a "time-related" problem of "wear" and "cell death," revealing her father’s project, "Crucible," was an attempt to halt entropy and aging. Crucially, the notebook referenced a deceased brother, Michael, whom her parents had kept secret. Her father’s entries expressed a desire for "a child who never leaves you," hinting he built the machine to prevent her from growing up and leaving, driven by the loss of Michael. Realizing the full extent of her parents’ deception and her father’s distorted motives, Nedda confronted Betheen. She accused them of being "shitty liars" and revealed her knowledge of Michael and the machine's true purpose, that it worked "like water" and "bubbles" to stop "wear." Nedda then emphatically declared, addressing both Betheen and Mr. Pete, that they would fix everything because "bad stuff doesn’t happen to good people and everything happens for a reason," concluding with a forceful demonstration of how to lie effectively. ==== chapter32 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Onboard the Chawla, the crew lived in intimate physical proximity, their boundaries having dissolved into a single, four-hearted organism, bumping gently against the walls. Nedda, her eye bandaged and itching, drifted in a knot of limbs with Singh and Evgeni. Singh, who smelled everything, comforted Nedda as she worried about her compromised sight. Evgeni, struggling with sleep due to his psych meds and inability to regulate to the ship’s lights, untangled himself to use the bike, prompting a concerned Marcanta to follow him. Nedda and Singh then discussed the necessity of stripping the medical bay to acquire parts needed to fix Amadeus, a plan Nedda anticipated Louisa would vehemently oppose, though Singh believed Louisa would prioritize the mission. Marcanta and Nedda had already decided that Nedda could not undertake the dangerous "walk to Amadeus," as her survival was indispensable for their chances of landing. Nedda then confided in Singh about her profound guilt, revealing that her father had built the machine responsible for the anomaly, creating the "Gappers" and ruining an entire town. She felt she had unfairly benefited from his actions, achieving a life of "consequence" that she now felt obligated to justify through potential sacrifice. Singh, however, dismissed her self-blame, emphasizing her youth at the time of the events. Moments later, Marcanta informed them that Evgeni needed two weeks of sedation for severe fatigue, and the crew gathered around his sleep sack as he was prepared. Nedda then retreated to her cabin alone, reflecting on Singh’s idealistic perception of her versus Louisa’s more pragmatic view. She contemplated her mother Betheen's understanding of living with obligation and purpose, and internally listed precise physical details of her father, a deeply complex memory. ==== chapter33 - 1986: Electromagnet (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda, consumed by anger, refused to eat, her stomach churning with emotions rather than hunger. Her parents had kept the death of her brother, Michael, a secret, and now her father, Theo, and Denny were trapped within a terrible device Theo had built. Though Betheen apologized for the deception, it offered Nedda no comfort. Betheen dismissed Nedda's suggestion to stay at Mr. Pete's, explaining her need for clarity amidst the growing oddities: cars lined Denny’s street, lights flickered unsettlingly in his house, and a strange coldness pervaded the air. Determined to act, Betheen began frantic calculus calculations on large graph paper pads, moving Theo’s books aside. She explained she was timing Theo’s cycling through time, from oldest to oldest, a full loop, and was working to calculate the necessary "spike" to intervene at the midpoint—about one lifetime. Nedda, realizing her mother was measuring her father's entire lifespan, was further enraged by a note she’d seen, indicating Theo had built the device because he "didn't want me to grow up." Betheen, despite Nedda’s fury, offered a tender touch and explained that after Michael’s death, they were profoundly sad, tried their best, and had kept the secret believing it would be easier for Nedda. Their intense work was interrupted by Pop Prater, Denny's father, who aggressively demanded to see Theo. Nedda, attempting to deflect him, launched into a rambling monologue about the Challenger explosion and other unrelated topics, trying to create a barrier with words. Betheen, however, stepped forward, her voice firm, protecting Nedda and refusing to disclose Theo’s whereabouts, yet acknowledging Denny had been there and his condition was linked to Theo. Pop Prater’s anger escalated, his veiled threats hinting at violence against Theo if Denny wasn’t fixed, linking the strange environmental shifts—dying trees, a distorted sky—to Theo’s actions. After he left, Betheen held Nedda, who felt too big for such comfort. Nedda directly asked if her father would die, to which Betheen replied, "I don't know," but urged them to allow only fifteen minutes for tears before resuming work. Betheen revealed her calculations were for an electromagnet designed to "pull Crucible apart," requiring immense heat and chaos. As the house lights around Denny’s flickered, Betheen realized the phenomenon was a "sinkhole," with the town floating on dissolving underground water, a truth Theo had hinted at. The sky remained unnaturally trapped between day and dusk, clocks stopped, and a chilling cold persisted. Betheen then confirmed that the 2 hours and 17 minutes on the kitchen timer represented the duration of Theo's full life cycle. Upstairs, in bed, Nedda, still grasping her mother's hand, asked about Michael. Betheen gently explained that Michael was born prematurely and lived little more than an hour, causing deep, lasting sadness that made it difficult for her to parent Nedda. She admitted keeping Michael a secret was an error, born from trying to protect Nedda, and reiterated her profound love for her. Nedda, pondering the briefness of Michael’s life against the fixed duration of her father’s loop, imagined him as Denny and wished she could float away like a bubble to touch their lights. Betheen placed Nedda's beloved toy pony on the windowsill, then returned to her calculations, a source of warmth in the pervasive cold. ==== chapter34 - 1986: The Town (Статус: completed) ==== Mayor Geoffrey Macon, confronting bizarre reports of a body sewing itself up and a frozen canal in Florida, decided to call a mandatory town hall meeting. Earlier, Desmond Prater had stormed his office, complaining his son was sick, trucks couldn't leave Easter, and phones were dead. Further disquieting news emerged: Prater's son was reportedly aging rapidly in a "bubble" and an orange grove was "eating itself." As Macon drove through the town, he noted the pervasive power outage and an unsettling glow emanating from Prater Citrus. The town hall meeting saw a large turnout, with residents expressing concerns about failing utilities, erratic temperatures (pools half-frozen, half-boiling), and the sun not setting. Mayor Macon attempted to calm the increasingly restless crowd by advising them to follow hurricane protocols. Desmond Prater, however, loudly demanded the whereabouts of Theo Papas, whose daughter had been with his son when an incident occurred, implying Papas knew something. This sparked a heated exchange with Rebekah La Morte, who scorned the notion that one man could control the sun. After a peculiar incident where his microphone sparked and burned his hand, Mayor Macon urged the crowd not to form a "lynch mob" for Papas. Overcome with emotion, Annie Prater, Desmond’s wife, left the meeting. She recalled Betheen Papas, who had taken in her son Denny, and Betheen's own past trauma. Annie resolved to find Betheen and Nedda Papas before returning to her son in the grove, determined to stay with him through his strange transformation, accepting the painful reality of witnessing his decline. ==== chapter35 - 1986: Sequence (Статус: completed) ==== Betheen, seeking a specific pulsing mechanism for a large machine, searched Pete’s parts-filled home, but he doubted he could replicate the exact pulse. Her daughter, Nedda, diligently scavenged outside, a “junk rat” Betheen noted with an inappropriate smile, recalling Theo. Pete offered Betheen coffee, his movements subtly blushing. Nedda, from the truck bed, then presented a perfectly crafted miniature electromagnet she had built, taught by her father, Theo; it failed to work on a monkey. Nedda feared their large-scale machine would also fail, but Betheen reassured her by explaining the vast power difference between Nedda’s D-cell battery and the two generators needed for their project, the dimensions of which were known from Theo’s notes. Betheen was acutely aware of the dangerous, flammable gases and radioactive isotope within Theo’s machine, knowing that doing nothing meant Theo would cycle infinitely, and Nedda would repeatedly lose him. As they stripped wires and cables, Nedda, exhibiting Theo’s single-mindedness, recited astronaut names and numbers. She revealed her extensive knowledge of Pete’s collection, identifying a "sequencer from Launch Complex 36A." Nedda explained the sequencer’s function, capable of running a series of operations and gathering data, prompting Betheen to resolve, “Let’s make it work.” ==== chapter36 - 1986: Assemble (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda, along with Betheen and Mr. Pete, worked to connect an old sequencer, "Mitzi," to generators and a large electromagnet, aiming to stop "Crucible" and aid Nedda's father, Theo, who was "stuck." Nedda was hesitant about facing Mrs. Prater, Denny's mother, as she had left Denny. Mrs. Prater then arrived, informing them that a town hall meeting had been called by Desmond, Denny’s father, who suspected Theo and Pete were involved in Denny’s disappearance and sought to harm Theo. Nedda confessed that Denny had been trying to fix a pruner and that Theo was stuck in a similar, yet distinct, way. Despite her own sorrow, Mrs. Prater agreed to help them transport the heavy equipment and to keep people away from Theo, while Nedda, insisting on helping, refused to leave. As they drove to the lab, they encountered bizarre phenomena—a flaming tiki head, distorted power lines, and overgrown roads—suggesting a widespread "time anomaly." Upon reaching the crumbling lab, Nedda went to see her father, Theo, who appeared aged, his white hair knotted, his face deeply lined, and his skin knitting itself together. He was visibly in pain and fear. Betheen monitored a timer, explaining that a shrinking plaque on Theo's back indicated he would soon be more accessible. Nedda grappled with her fear and the difficulty of articulating what she most needed to say to her father. ==== chapter37 - Aboard Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Aboard Chawla, Nedda received a video call from her brother, Denny, his face appearing flat and aged through the screen, making it clear they no longer occupied the same time. She revealed to him that she was going blind due to "space stuff" and had undergone a procedure involving a vitrector, essentially a knife-needle, to remove fluid from her eye, hoping it would help. Denny was shocked. Denny then shared news from Earth: their father had died two years prior, and he had sold the family orange grove. He explained he didn't enjoy farming and that the Prater oranges were uniquely immune to a devastating fungus, fetching a high price. He confessed his anger at Nedda and their mother for having lied to him about their father's true nature and past actions, which he only understood after his father's death and his mother's newfound happiness. Denny admitted he had been in love with Nedda, recalling how she seemed frozen in time to him, a constant presence during his formative years while he aged. He now owned a car shop specializing in gas vehicles and a boat, and his mother was thriving in a new home. He also spoke of his girlfriend, Kate, who worried and didn't fully grasp his unique bond with Nedda. After the call, Nedda experienced the first light through her partially healed eye, seeing her crewmate Evgeni with astonishing clarity. Dr. Marcanta (Louisa) performed vision tests and discussed the next steps: Nedda would have to perform the same vitrector procedure on Louisa, then Singh, and finally Evgeni, to address their shared vision problems, which were also linked to the ship's "drive" issue they intended to fix. They shared rum, reflecting on the sacrifices made for their mission—foregoing children, spouses—but acknowledging the profound, unique bond they had forged with each other on Chawla. Nedda remembered Denny's words, that he was a better person due to the time gap, having learned patience and the need for others. Despite the lies and the vast distance, physical and temporal, Nedda and Denny found comfort in their shared history, promising to stay in touch, holding onto "good lies, meant to be true." As the call ended, Nedda recalled pivotal sights, including Evgeni's goggled face during her eye recovery, a new, warm vision. ==== chapter38 - The Break (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda confronted her father, Theo, who was trapped within "Crucible," a machine that caused him to shift uncontrollably through different ages and forms. Despite her complex feelings and resentment over his actions, particularly his desire to keep her from growing up, Nedda yearned for a connection with him. Her mother, Betheen, revealed their plan to activate an electromagnet, which would disrupt Crucible's field and destroy it, knowing this would also kill Theo. Theo accepted his impending death, reassuring Nedda that he would always be with her as elemental forces like gas, carbon, heat, and light. As his physical form rapidly regressed through infancy and childhood, Nedda refused to leave his side, even when he briefly appeared as a young man who didn't recognize her but called her "perfect." After Betheen pulled her away from the lab, Nedda insisted on being the one to flip the sequencer switch, initiating the process that would activate the electromagnet. She understood that making this difficult choice herself was essential. As the machine activated, a surge of light and heat emanated from the lab, causing a strange, momentary fusion of consciousness among the townspeople gathered at the school, where they experienced a collective yearning. Nedda's father was gone, leaving a profound void, yet she found a paradoxical comfort in his earlier words, believing his essence and the light of his existence would continue to travel through the universe. Nedda, Betheen, and Mr. Pete then drove towards Denny's house, navigating a changed town, with Nedda reflecting on her father's scientific explanations of life and loss, and accepting that despite the pain, she and her mother would endure. ==== chapter39 - Revelation (Статус: completed) ==== Randall Holt, a long-haul truck driver, was asleep in his driverless semi when the onboard computer pulled over at an unexpected fueling station. Waking to find himself at the "Easter Gas n’ Go," he was bewildered by the old-fashioned gas pumps and cars, realizing he had stopped at what appeared to be a classic car shop. Unable to find a charging station for his electric truck, he relieved himself outside, noticing a new-looking billboard for "Prater Citrus," a product he remembered from his childhood, long thought to be out of production. His truck’s AI then drove him into a town that seemed frozen in time, with cars and a theater marquee from the late 1970s or early 1980s. He stopped at a retro diner, where the owner, Ellery Rees, served him multiple grapefruits. When Randall picked up Ellery’s newspaper and saw the date, he reacted with profound shock, realizing something was terribly wrong. Soon after Randall departed, police, reporters, and state disaster management converged on Easter. It was revealed that the town’s residents suffered from a unique form of "temporal dissociation," having been unknowingly trapped in the days following the Challenger disaster for fifty years. Scientists investigated, discovering evidence of an explosion at a local college lab where a researcher had been working on a radiation treatment for joint diseases. The affected lab and surrounding building were subsequently leveled and filled with concrete. ==== chapter40 - 299,792,458 m/s (Статус: completed) ==== After a life confined to Florida, Theo Papas died, his body constrained, his mind expanding. In death, his self protracted from his laboratory, his light spreading into the sky, piercing the "pellucid skin of time" he had helped create. Each facet of his life, distilled to a wish or impulse, rode photons into the night. Theo traveled through decades as a flickering aura, his thoughts glancing along wave tops. His memory of first seeing Betheen reached the moon, while his touch of Michael's thumb washed into deep space. His father's death wended to the Horsehead Nebula, mixing with other lights. The light that was Theo Papas rippled across the universe, parts absorbed until he was a "lone brilliant wave." The last of Theo traveled as light: a single, joyful memory of his five-year-old daughter's laugh when he pulled a quarter from behind her ear. This "brilliant happiness," stripped of fear, crossed the solar system, sailing to far stars. This thought touched a small planet, causing terraformers and bots to move with ease and hum, welcoming this wave of laughter. He circled the planet, blanketing its surface. In his wake, the air carried the scent of oranges, solder, and human salt. This "best light" mingled with another sun, the star his daughter would spend her days beneath, to welcome her home. ==== chapter41 - And After (Статус: completed) ==== After her father Michael's death, Nedda and her mother, Betheen, woke disheveled in their parlor, grappling with grief and an inability to eat. Betheen insisted they go to the Bird's Eye, leading them into a transformed town where strange vans, ambulances, and "MEDICAL RELIEF" trailers lined the streets. A woman explained that mandatory flu shots and blood draws were being administered by the CDC due to a national outbreak. Reporters, sensing a story, hovered, while townspeople avoided Betheen and Nedda. At the diner, Ellery, the waiter, revealed a shocking truth: fifty years had passed, and it was now May 31, 2036. This revelation, particularly the realization of Michael's long absence, visibly stunned Betheen and left Nedda grappling with her impossible temporal displacement. Nedda observed futuristic technology outside, struggled with her mixed emotions, and then she and Betheen received their unsettling, multi-needle vaccinations. Back home, a reporter, Angela Valentini, waited, asking about Michael's alleged involvement in an explosion. Though Betheen wished to avoid her, Nedda, seeking control, confronted the reporter, asking about the Challenger explosion (her last clear memory) and the state of space travel. Nedda later saw her own picture in a newspaper, labeled "Scientist's daughter, age 11," and reflected in her journal on her stalled time. A week later, their neighbor Denny, who had been distressed following the event, visited. His memory was fuzzy, recalling only the Challenger explosion and Michael's death, but not his own trauma. Realizing that the event had somehow rewound Denny's memory, protecting him from painful truths, Nedda chose to preserve this illusion. She lied, claiming she had made him sneak out to teach her to drive the pruner, and that he had appeared to be struck by "lightning" before she ran, thereby shielding him from the knowledge of his father's prior harm. This lie, she reflected, was for Denny's protection, a complex act born of her own grief and the bewildering new reality. ==== chapter42 - 1989: Amadeus (Статус: completed) ==== Avi Liebowitz refined scientific work largely derived from his missing collaborator, Theo, feeling both excitement for the project, which promised him a return to NASA, and guilt that much of it was not his own. He had repeatedly tried to contact Theo, whose phone lines were disconnected and whose college office line also failed, leading Avi to speculate that Theo might have been fired or was in a deeply focused phase. Avi recalled Theo's quirky personality and his wife Betheen's eccentricities. After these attempts and a letter returned undeliverable, Avi realized that Theo and his entire town had vanished, making it impossible to file a missing persons report. For a year and a half, Avi continued developing Theo's notes, altering materials and focusing on accelerating half-life for compact fuel and contained radiation effects, envisioning applications like preventing catastrophic damage akin to Chernobyl. He developed a compact, high-powered generator suitable for a space probe. While finishing this work, Avi, haunted by Theo's disappearance, asked a summer intern about an entire town vanishing. Avi subsequently moved to Pasadena to work at JPL on the drive he designed, crediting Theo where possible. He named the generator "Amadeus," for Theophilos, Theo's full name, meaning "friend of God." Despite his success and improved quality of life in Pasadena, Avi's guilt persisted. Examining Theo's old notes, he noticed the increasingly large and shaky scrawl, realizing that Theo's inability to write or build small implied Theo had not just hypothesized but had actually built and used the machine himself. This led Avi to ponder the idea of a "sinkhole in time" rather than just in the earth, suggesting the true nature of Theo's disappearance. ==== chapter43 - Chawla (Статус: completed) ==== Nedda, a seasoned astronaut who had walked on the Moon and Mars, undertook her first spacewalk tethered to the Chawla. Guided by Amit and Evgeni through her comms, she struggled with movement in the light gravity, heading towards the engine to access panel CAN1283. Amidst the profound silence and faint light of space, she contemplated the allure of untethered flight, understanding, for a moment, the fatal urge of a past astronaut who had removed his visor. After opening the panel and entering the water storage unit, which then flooded with viscous water, she conversed with Evgeni, who recounted Chernobyl's long-term devastation but also the subsequent rewilding of the land, hinting at beauty emerging from catastrophe. Nedda then reached another hatch, leading to "Amadeus," a glowing device she recognized as "Crucible"—a project linked to her father, designed to prevent the kind of loss he had experienced. Her task was to connect "Baby," a syncer crafted from Chawla parts, to Amadeus's panel EUR2020, to counteract centrifugal force and stabilize a problematic rod. Guided by a profound, almost inherited understanding, she successfully completed the intricate wiring. After securing Baby and exiting the chamber, the ship's life support power transferred to Amadeus. Nedda joined her crewmates, Amit, Evgeni, and Louisa, huddling together in Amit's room, finally feeling a deep warmth as they waited for Amadeus to stabilize. ==== chapter44 - Fall and Rise (Статус: completed) ==== Aboard the Chawla, Nedda observed robotic terraformers like Trio, Un, and Dué working on a new planet below, their progress evident in the developing landscape. Evgeni joined her, his eye still raw, to announce the imminent planetrise. He dismissed fear, asserting their current purpose in continuing human life after Earth's decline, driven by science and wonder, comparing fear to a painful but ignored stitch in a runner's side. Nedda confessed her own fear, which Evgeni countered with a quip about hunger and lobsters, leading to a rare laugh. They then moved to the common area, joining Louisa and Amit at a large window to watch the approaching planet, still distant but soon to be their home. Nedda reflected on the certainty of death for one or more of them within the year, acknowledging the mission's grim realities and the "disposal of human remains" chapter she refused to read. Despite the ever-present dangers and the constant stream of medicinal pills, Evgeni gently nudged Nedda toward the window, inviting her to imagine their future on the planet. As light touched their faces, Amit voiced the grim truth: "We're going to die there." Evgeni countered that death would come only after they began to build, and for now, they were simply "the only people alive who get to do this," his voice alight with eagerness. Nedda's hand entwined with Louisa's, and she contemplated how every touch blended them, making them "a little less themselves, a little more each other." She mused on carrying fragments of past loved ones across the universe. As the planet's unexpected purple glow bathed them, Nedda experienced a profound moment of clarity, seeing her past—her father, a never-known brother, and those who had taught her life's terminus—all converging to bring her to this sky's end. Reaching into her pocket, she felt a worn scrap, and as her vision cleared, the lifelong burden of words dissolved. In that purple light, she felt she touched "the face of God."