Success part2

Old Jim heard the traffic noise stop just as he was getting out of bed. He’d almost given up the chance of any more excitement from his hobby, but as he looked out of the window in his pyjamas, he saw that the police had once again closed the roundabout. Workmen were clearing the vegetation from the central area, while lorries unloaded as the space became available. On the other side of the road other lorries were unloading similar equipment and some of the workmen on that side had begun to erect a tall metal framework.

Almost as quickly as it had been closed, the road was opened and the familiar noise of impatient traffic heard again.

Jim dressed hurriedly and took up his position at the window while eating his breakfast. He wasn’t going to miss a second of this if he could help it.

The men on the island had started putting up a structure similar to the one on the opposite side of the road. Jim soon realised that they were building a bridge. A large mobile crane turned up and began to hoist a completed section over the road, while the workmen climbed up the towers on either side to bolt it all together. Steps were fitted and the bridge to the traffic island was complete.

It seemed obvious to Jim that the workmen had built a bridge designed for this specific location. Then they all packed up their tools and crossed the bridge to a waiting coach, the whole operation had been carried out with military efficiency, albeit the workmen had all been dressed in civilian clothes.

As they were driven away, another coach pulled up onto the grass verge on the same side of the road. This time the men crossing the bridge were wearing white coats and four of them were carrying a very large box, covered over to shield the contents from the weather. A gate on the access side of the bridge was closed and locked behind them. Then the party went across to two Portacabins that had been left to one side of the central clearing and the box was put down gently on the ground.

“Yes!” exclaimed Jim, if he’d been younger he would have quite likely got up and danced a jig. The cover had been removed from the box and the rats were coming out. Now things should begin to get interesting again!

----O----

The War Department had moved with unaccustomed speed and efficiency, Ron was delighted. A prefabricated bridge and a portable laboratory had been built on the roundabout’s central island at the rat’s insistence. The reason they gave was that they knew where the first ‘transmat’ had sent them and they wanted to try and replicate their first setting and progress in gradual increments from there.

Ron had been most impressed by their communication skills and design approach. There must be something about the rat brain that lead them to such startling jumps in their ideas. He was feeling very proud of himself for helping kick start this creative energy.

He suddenly had a thought and looked up to see if the old man was watching. The vegetation had been carefully cleared so that traffic would be unable to see the operations on the island, otherwise the whole road system would be clogged up with sightseers. The only observer was old Jim and nobody ever believed a word he said. Sure enough there he was looking at the site through a pair of binoculars. Ron waved and received a cheery wave back.

As the days progressed Ron became more and more impressed with the rats ingenuity and lateral thinking. A high voltage armoured power cable had been lead over the footbridge and nearly every day there were tests, most of which he had to admit were unsuccessful.

Frames of various sizes had been made up for test purposes. Sometimes they wouldn’t light up at all, at other times there might be a huge spark and a bang as the frame melted. The science by now was far beyond Ron’s understanding, but George said the rats were learning a lot with every test.

At last they achieved a viable result. An aluminium frame eighteen inches square had been made to produce a beautifully clear blue light. After preliminary tests George walked through and came back to say he’d gone to the same spot in France as he had the first time. Work continued to refine the system, but Ron soon noticed that anything larger than twenty inches wouldn’t produce a clear light.

Experiments continued in reducing the frame size and George became very excited one day when a matt black sort of nothing filled a very small frame. He came over to Ron and said that increased distances could only be obtained by using a smaller frame. The black shimmer that had so excited him meant that they could now start focussing the apparatus to determine where interesting targets might lie.

The machinery had been mounted on a universal joint and the rats became busy moving the screen in minute fractions. Then one day every one of them disappeared leaving a note propped up against the screen’s frame.

“The apparatus is now all yours,” it said. “For all practical purposes I think you will find eighteen inches across the frame is the limit, you should find it useful for sending parcels. Good bye and thanks for your cooperation.”