Halted Progress

"Dad, can you play baseball with me?"

Charles E. Dandy was not the type of man to give up his work for frivolous things. In fact, he was known for just that. He had written all about it in his book, The Guide to Healthy Work Habits. Because of this, he knew it would be hypocritical to give up work now, especially right now, when he was so close. A breakthrough would be made. He would find the way to teleport himself to other dimensions, without the distortion he had run into before. He glanced at the pile of failed tests, ranging from a crushed apple core, to a watch that had been turned inside-out.

He rubbed his bald head in frustration. There was so much work to be done before he could stop. He would have to clean out the vacuum tubes, polish the console, and dust the wires. Not to mention all the testing that needed to be done. He really had no time for anything else. Especially stupid, unimportant things, like baseball.

"Dad, Please! I'm really bored!"

"No, Jimmy, I'm sorry, I have to work."

"Come on, Dad! You've been couped up down in that basement for days! You need some vitamin D as much as I do!"

Charles E. Dandy had had enough. "Don't you talk back to me! You're grounded!"

"Dad! What the heck! That's not fair!"

"Don't you talk to me about fair! I'm taking away T.V. privileges too!"

"Gaaaaah! I hate you!"

He heard the door slam upstairs. Finally, some peace and quiet. He would clean later. Time to begin test number... What was he on again? 34? It wasn't like these tests were performed with the highest quality. All his funding came from that boys' college fund, whenever he acted up. He sighed, and placed the closest thing he could find into the device, which happened to be a photo of his ex-wife with a mustache scribbled on.

He smiled when he looked at that picture. He was glad she was gone. She just took up space. She rarely cooked, she almost never cleaned, she was an all around terrible wife. The only thing he wished he hadn't kept was that useless son of theirs. Maybe when he got rid of those B's and stepped up his game he wouldn't be so useless. Until then, he would just be the son he never wanted. He shook his head, clearing it of all distractions, and got back to work.

The device itself was fairly large. It could fit around three people, if the squeezed, five if they were contortionists, and 4 if they were dead. He knew it wasn't ready for tests on living things yet, so the the thing just seemed to be taking up space. He turned on the machine and it began to warm up. While he waited, he check his book sales. They were awful. Oh well. At least he could milk the publishers for everything they had.

Suddenly, he heard scrambling down the stairs. It was the family dog, Rodney. Charles E. Dandy had never wanted a  dog. It had been dumped on them when his brother had moved out of town. He would have protested, except he owed his brother quite a heavy sum of money, and he wanted to stay on his good side as much as possible.

"Go away, mutt. I'm working."

Rodney stared at him for a second, then dove into the machine.

"No! You might break it!"

Charles made a mad dash for the machine, pulling Rodney safely out at the last second. Unfortunately for him, he could not exit the machine before it activated with a flurry of colored lights, making him a dimensional traveler.

Charles E. Dandy had a splitting headache. It was unlike anything he had experienced before. It wasn't the worst he had ever felt (curse those migraines) but it was close. He managed to open his eyes and get up. He was in some kind of field. The grass was ridiculously high, almost up to his shoulders. Someone needed to cut this. The photo of his ex-wife floated to the ground next to him.

It all came back to him. It had worked! The machine had worked! He was alive! He looked down at himself. Barely a scratch! He had to write this down in his reports. But how would he get back? He assumed when he was ready to test live things, he would send them with a smaller version of the machine. He didn't have any machine with him. How would he get back to work now?!

His panic was interrupted by a sense of accomplishment. He had done it! He was the first human to travel through dimensions! He was too caught up in his pride to notice the descending hoof.

Crunch.

Bon Bon heard it at the same time Lyra felt it.

"What was that?"

"I don't know. Probably a bug or something." Se resumed her walk through the park, Bon Bon directly next to her. "So anyway, as I was saying, there is real evidence that humans exist."

"Yeah. Sure." Bon Bon responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm serious! This is scientific stuff right here!"

"How big would these humans even be?"

"Evidence suggests they would be slightly larger than pony, but that might be wrong. We won't know until we find one."

"You say that like you're certain we will find one."

"Oh, I know we'll find one. Someday. C'mon, lets go get a snack."

Lyra wiped the rest of the gunk off of her hoof, the prospect of food quickening her pace.

Someday.