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looked down, her head rocked back and forth and she pursed her lips like she was writing something down.
"I still don't understand why you wanted me here." He sighed, and took another sip of coffee.
"Are you kidding," she smiled. She hardly looked up from whatever she was writing, "You're the best in your field."
"Yeah," he scoffed. "My field is religion. I'm not a scientist."

"Are you sure?" she laughed. "Only a scientist would enjoy coffee that black."
He smiled back at her, "it relaxes me."
She finally looked up from her writing, "We're gonna take things a little slow today. I want you to roll back your event horizon counter by ten minutes."
"All of them?"
"All you have to do is roll back the current timer and the rest will update automatically," she said with a smile.
"Yes, of course," he sipped his coffee. "How easily I forget."
"Make sure you remember, Marcus," she said sternly.
"Don't worry so much, Nance. You can always send them back. You can always purge the results," he paused. "We have all the time in the world."
"Very funny," she smirked, "and original."
"Oh, what you heard that one before?" He smiled, holding back laughter.
"Dr. Cook thought that one was pretty funny," she looked back down at what she had written, "and Dr. Robins, and Dr. Hickman."
He laughed to himself, it echoed in the bottom of the nearly empty tube.
"I'm serious, Marcus," she looked back up at him. "Roll back your timer now."
"Okay, okay," he set his coffee down and turned on the stool. He began tapping at the panel, poking red and blue rectangles and ovals on the screen. The screen flashed twice and the timer changed. "Done. Event horizon in twenty-two minutes and thirteen seconds."
The picture of Nancy's head turned on the screen and she nodded, "confirmed. We are synchronized, Marcus. Don't forget about the time change."
"Gonna stay on the line for my report so I don't have to call you back?" he asked.
"I might as well."
"Opening channel," he said as he tapped on another screen. "So why are we being cautious today?"
She sighed, "There is an irregularity in the core. Simon is worried that we might have to vent today."
"But if we have to vent then we can't open the event horizon," he pursed his lips. "So why are we doing this today? Let's postpone and vent anyway."
"We can't," she looked back down at her writing. "If we don't produce results today the government funding will be pulled."
"What?" he said, setting his cup down on the control panel, "We're gonna lose our jobs?"

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