Bill was coming up with a mental list of people he might need to consult with when he realized the plane was already flaring out to land. It had hardly banked at all and done a power-on approach. They must have cleared every other plane out of the way for the fighter. The pilot flared out, hit reverse thrusters and turned off the runway so hard it seemed as if they were going to fall over.

“In a hurry, Colonel?” Bill asked.

“Very,” the pilot replied. “I got two in-flight requests for ETA. Somebody wants you pronto.”

“Well, thanks for the ride, hope we can do it again some time.”

There were soldiers waiting for the plane who obviously had no idea how to unhook all the umbilicals and straps that held him in the seat. The pilot unstrapped and got him unhooked, then he clambered out of the plane and onto the runway.

“Mr. Weaver?” one of the soldiers said. “I’m Sergeant Garcia. If you’ll come this way?”

“Can I get out of the flight suit?” Bill asked, unzipping same. He reached up and managed to get open the small compartment he had seen his bag disappear into. He stuffed the G suit into the compartment and retrieved the backpack, then headed to the waiting Humvee.

“I understand you know what’s going on here,” the sergeant said as he climbed in as driver. The other soldier climbed in the back.

“No,” Bill replied. “But I understand what might have happened, somewhat, and I’ve got some theories about what is happening and what might happen. And I know some of the questions to ask. Other than that, I’m in the dark.”

The sergeant laughed and shook his head. “Can you explain it in small words?”

“Not unless you know what a Higgs boson particle is,” Bill said, aware that he was going to have to explain it over and over again.

“A theoretical particle in quantum mechanics that can contain a universe,” the sergeant replied. “But you can’t form them unless you’ve got a really big supercollider. Right?”