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The team exchanged glances again and Tim reached for his wrist watch. He held a combination of buttons until the rim around its face turned green. Then, he reached for the small cube in his tool belt and held it over the face of the watch for three seconds. The watch’s rim light turned red and a twenty four hour countdown began. The cube itself did not change in appearance, no noise, no lights, nothing to make it stand out.
“What is it?” Tim had queried when Aide had first shown him the cube one night in his room.
“A bomb.”
“What?” Tim almost dropped the cube on the bedside cupboard and jumped back.
“Calm down, it’s alright, its deactivated, its harmless.”
“Harmless? You just said it was a bomb!”
Aide wouldn’t say where it came from, or how he’d got his hands on it. Although he had asked, Tim wasn’t sure he really wanted to know anyhow.
“Just activate it like I showed you and leave it on the apparatus. It will fit in – you’ll see.”
Aide had been right (again), the brushed metal look of the wormhole apparatus appeared almost identical to the bomb. Tim’s team spread out; Ed headed for a small office on the right of the apparatus, Max went back to monitor the checkpoint they’d just come through. Tim was left to place the bomb. The room they were in was dull lit. The apparatus stood on a small platform surrounded by railings and a few steps leading up to it in the centre. Tim climbed the steps and began to walk around the large machine. Not a perfect cube, the apparatus was pitted with recesses. Tim saw one that appeared big enough and slid the cube into it. He then came round to the other side and waited for the okay from the Ed in the side office. There was a small window in the wall allowing Tim to see him. The office contained an array of flat panel screens containing recordings of the apparatus and operational readouts. Ed was busy erasing all recordings of their time in the apparatus room. He gave Tim a thumbs up indicating none of the camera feeds were covering the spot where Tim had placed the bomb. With each of their tasks successfully completed, the team retreated from the apparatus room.
Tim sat on his bed in his quarters watching the countdown on his wristwatch. 5:12:49, 48, 47... each second that went by made Tim’s guilt grow stronger. A dust storm had set in outside which dropped the already dull red glow in his room to near black. It reminded him of warm nights on Earth where the light pollution lit up the clouds to give them a cosy orange glow. As a kid Tim loved to sit inside with all the lights turned off and look out at sky as it started to rain. This particular evening his mother was sat behind him watching TV.