Chapter One
The End

Watertown, New York, in the year 2,020, was definitely not the place it used to be. With several threats of war after the big conflict a few years ago, most of the buildings had been redesigned to be built underground, with only one or two stories up above. The city seemed a dingy, depressing place. Even when the sun was shining most of the residents journeyed about with heads down, scurrying toward their destination, ignoring everything and everyone they did not have to see.
On the outskirts of the city near a large, green field was the building that aroused the attention of everyone in The United States. It used to be a grade school, and still appeared as such....red brick with white trimming. but inside was the potential hope for Earth's future. This place was now The Gray-Lockmore Institute Of Scientific Research. In the top security wing's huge laboratory The Rapid Matter Transport Project, the government's top secret effort, was slowly, meticulously being brought into existence.
Dr. Matthew Cooper had been appointed it's Supervisor. He was a determined, seemingly tireless man of great intelligence, who didn't appear the role, or, wish to. At age forty-five he was roughly handsome with curly brown hair which never seemed combed, he kept cut to his collar. He had brown eyes that twinkled when he smiled, accented by deep set crow's feet. At six feet he presented a strong, slightly overweight, clean shaven image, though his clothes were usually rumpled as he wasn't married and usually slept in them, concentrating on his project.
This is the way Dr. Cooper looked, then, hands stuffed in his pants pockets under his winter coat, dark scarf draped around his neck blowing in the slight breeze as he made his way to the lab this special morning. His quarters were near the lab so he always preferred to walk.
This was the day the R.M.T.P. was to be tested at last. Cooper had been informed by his superiors the device would be used to set up a moon base, to be used if there was a war. It HAD to work properly. He hated the thought of another possible war. Having served as a medic in the last one and it had unnerved him to his very bones, he'd sworn he would not take part in another one...never again serve on the battlefield. He would never see his son grown up...if he'd had one. The violence of the recent past had kept Cooper awake nights, which did not serve his project well at all. But now R.M.T.P. was his "baby," and he wouldn't give it up for anything.