Timeline

00:02:22

In the control room, there were screams and cheers. Kramer was jumping up and down. Gordon was pounding Stern on the back. The monitor was showing field fluctuations again. Intense and powerful.

"They're coming home!" Kramer yelled.

Stern looked at the video screens, which showed the tanks in the room below. The technicians had already filled several shields with water, and the shields were holding. The remaining tanks were still being filled, though the water level was nearing the top.

"How much time?" he said.

"Two minutes twenty."

"How long to fill the tanks?"

"Two minutes ten."

Stern bit his lip. "We going to make it?"

"You bet your ass we are," Gordon said.

Stern turned back to the field fluctuations. They were growing stronger and clearer, the false colors shimmering on the spikes. The unstable mountain peak was now stable, protruding above the surface, taking form. "How many are coming back?" he said. But he already knew the answer, because the mountain peak was dividing into separate ridges.

"Three," the technician said. "Looks like three coming back."