Pausing to breathe a heavy sigh, he was almost run into by the young lady John had issued the parting message for....Jeannette Margaret Hall. She was holding the usual clipboard, looking at readouts, charts and other informational data. Looking as beautiful as ever, even in her white lab coat and matching coveralls she smiled up at her boss with large blue eyes twinkling. She blushed, a bad habit she and Officer McCree had in common.
"Oh, excuse me, sir!" she gasped, "I was just going out to look for you! We are almost ready for the big test you've been waiting for so long. Sorry about the holdup, but there were a million minor details to be seen to. We treat ol' R.M.T.P. here, just like a baby!"
"And today it'll take its first steps!" Dr Cooper grinned. "Well, shall we get to work?"
"Of course, Doctor!"
The lab room they occupied was huge compared to other rooms in the Institute. At the wall opposite to the door Dr. Cooper had entered, stood R.M.T.P. There were two or three steps before it that led to a platform connected to the rear wall, and, two walls especially erected which slanted sideways to give a better view of the area between them Between them, evenly spaced out on the floor platform, were four medium-sized circles of a special plexiglass material, tough enough to hold more weight than a large man, but almost transparent so you could see machinery right through. Above this, attached to the ceiling, was a hanging duplicate of the floor platform, the only difference being the circles overhead were suspended about three inches from the ceiling with a black, plastic-like material which surrounded them and protected the delicate insides of the valuable equipment. The operating panel, itself, was a few feet away, enclosed in a booth surrounded with a bullet proof glass. This panel stood waist high to a man, and held an assortment of computerized buttons which were color coded with identifying lights. It also held the Activation Switch. The wall behind The Transporter hid intricate wiring and tubes almost no one out of this room knew anything about. The interior of The Transporter itself, was about the size of a theater stage.
Dr. Cooper donned a lab coat, leaving it unfastened, and gave Jeanie a nod. He then proceeded into the safety room and studied the operating panel and a clipboard he'd found on a table beside it. He knew all the operating instructions, but there was no room for error. Beginning to re-read them, he took his wire-rimmed glasses out of the coat's left breast pocket and put them on. Thank goodness he was only supposed to wear them for close work! Cooper hated the things! As the Doctor did this, some technicians wheeled a huge cement cubicle in on a dolly. The first experimental test to take place, was to consist of this object hopefully being transported from the platform to a twin transporter which acted as a receiving station. This twin was located to the left of Dr. Cooper, on the other side of the room, behind a concrete wall. The cubical, after a lengthily struggle, was placed on end, over one of the transparent beam circles.