Chapter 1
[Rose's POV]
Los Alamos, New Mexico, December 15, 1943
The uranium sample glowed with an otherworldly luminescence under the laboratory's harsh fluorescent lights. I adjusted my safety goggles and checked the Geiger counter readings one final time – the isotope separation calculations had to be perfect. One miscalculation, and we'd set back the Manhattan Project by months.
"Dr. Evans, your revised formula for critical mass determination is remarkable," Dr. Oppenheimer said, approaching my workstation with genuine admiration in his voice. "You've solved what's been puzzling our entire team for weeks."
I looked up from my calculations, feeling a mixture of pride and exhaustion. Being one of the few women in the Manhattan Project meant every equation had to be flawless, every theory bulletproof. The weight of ending this war rests on getting the physics right, I reminded myself, as I had every day since arriving at Los Alamos.
"Thank you, Dr. Oppenheimer. The mathematics became clear once I considered the neutron absorption cross-sections from a different angle." I gestured to the blackboard covered in my derivations. "The key was realizing that the spherical geometry creates compression waves that—"
"Mommy! Mommy, you're home!"
Six-year-old James launched himself into my arms the moment I stepped through our modest quarters' door. His dark hair was mussed from an afternoon of play, and his eyes sparkled with the boundless curiosity I cherished. Even after twelve hours in the lab, his embrace instantly melted away my fatigue.
"Hello, my brilliant boy," I said, kneeling down to his level. "What have you been building today?"
James excitedly dragged me to his corner where wooden blocks were arranged in precise circular patterns. "I made atoms! See? This is the... the nu-cle-us," he pronounced carefully, pointing to the center blocks, "and these are the elect-rons spinning around!"
My heart swelled with maternal pride and a touch of scientific amusement. "Very impressive, James. But tell me, what do you think atoms do?"
His face scrunched in concentration. "They make big boom-booms! Like really pretty fireworks in the sky! Daddy said you're making the biggest firework ever to end the war!"
The innocence in his voice pierced through me. I sat cross-legged beside him, pulling him close. "Oh, sweetheart, atoms are powerful, but the power can create or destroy. It's not about the fireworks – it's about how we choose to use that power." I stroked his hair gently. "When this war is over, I promise we'll watch real fireworks together. The kind that bring joy, not..."
I trailed off, unable to burden his pure heart with the weight of what we were truly creating.
Reaching into my notebook, I tore out a page where I'd sketched the atomic structure for my own reference. "Here, keep this. It's our special diagram – something to remember Mommy's work by."
James clutched the paper like treasure. "I'll keep it forever and ever!"
Forever, I thought, holding him tighter.
The emergency alarm shrieked through the complex at 11:46 PM. I bolted upright in my quarters, already pulling on my lab coat. Critical reaction containment failure in Laboratory Seven – my laboratory.
Racing through the corridors, I could see the sickly green glow emanating from under the lab door. Radiation leak. Massive radiation leak. The Geiger counters were clicking so rapidly they sounded like machine gun fire.
"Dr. Evans, don't go in there!" A security guard grabbed my arm. "The radiation levels are lethal!"
I shook him off, my mind calculating rapidly. If the reaction goes critical, the entire complex could be compromised. Thousands of lives. James sleeping just half a mile away.
"The manual shutdown valve is inside," I called back, already pushing through the heavy door. "Someone has to stop this!"
The radiation hit me like a physical force, but I pressed forward. My hands shook as I reached for the emergency shutdown controls, my vision already beginning to blur. The valve... turn the valve...
As consciousness faded, my last coherent thought was of James's innocent face. My little James... Mommy can't watch you grow up after all...
The steady beeping of medical equipment slowly pulled me back to awareness. But this wasn't the primitive medical bay at Los Alamos. The sounds were different, more sophisticated. Electronic, I realized with confusion.
"Patient is regaining consciousness!" a voice called out. "Vitals are stabilizing!"
I opened my eyes to a room that seemed impossibly advanced. The medical equipment around me looked like something from a science fiction novel – sleek screens displaying complex readings, devices I couldn't even begin to identify. My body felt... different. Younger.
"Miss Evans, can you hear me? You've been in a car accident, but you're going to be fine," a doctor in pristine white scrubs explained. "Just a minor concussion. You're very lucky."
Car accident? The memories weren't mine, but they flooded in anyway: a young woman named Rose Evans, walking home from Boston College Preparatory Academy, stepping into traffic while lost in despair...
And then I understood. Somehow, impossibly, I was no longer in 1943.
As the borrowed memories settled into place, I learned about my new existence. This Rose Evans was also eighteen, daughter of William Evans, a physics professor at Boston University. But unlike my previous life of scientific purpose, this girl had been struggling with depression, overshadowed by her stepmother Sarah Miller and half-sister Rachel.
The original Rose's soul departed as mine arrived, I realized with both sadness and gratitude. She'd been given a second chance through my presence.
The automobile moved with an almost supernatural silence as we glided through Boston's streets. I pressed my face to the window in wonder – the city had transformed beyond recognition. But what truly amazed me was the car itself. No engine noise, no vibrations. Electric motor, I realized. They've perfected electric vehicles.
"The car can actually pilot itself, Miss Evans," the driver mentioned, noticing my amazement. "Would you like to see?"
Self-piloting automobiles? My scientific mind raced. Some sort of computerized guidance system – sensors, perhaps radar technology advanced beyond what we achieved during the war.
The Evans family mansion in Boston's Back Bay was a marvel of modern architecture and technology. Lights responded to my presence – motion sensors, possibly infrared detection – and a massive screen dominated one wall, displaying moving pictures with impossibly clear resolution. The housekeeper mentioned something about watching programs, though I couldn't grasp the mechanism.
Most astounding was the small device they handed me – no larger than a deck of cards, yet containing what appeared to be a glowing screen and responding to touch. "Your phone," they called it, though it bore no resemblance to any telephone I'd known.
The computing power in this tiny device, I thought in wonder as I experimentally touched its surface, must exceed our entire Los Alamos calculation facility.
In my bedroom, I discovered the original Rose's physics and mathematics textbooks. Quantum mechanics was now standard curriculum. Relativity wasn't theoretical – it was engineering. The scientific advances of eight decades, I thought in amazement, all at my fingertips.
"Rose, darling, how are you feeling?"
Sarah Miller swept into my room wearing what was clearly an expensive suit – the fabric and tailoring spoke of wealth and refinement. Her shoes appeared to be crafted from exotic leather with impossibly slender heels. Everything about her presentation screamed cultivated sophistication.
"Tomorrow evening, we're attending the Boston Academic Foundation's charity gala," she informed me, her tone leaving no room for discussion. "As a member of the Evans family, your presence is expected. Please try to comport yourself with dignity this time, instead of that sullen behavior that embarrasses us all."
The original Rose would have meekly acquiesced. But I was not the original Rose.
"Mrs. Miller," I said, meeting her gaze directly, "I'll conduct myself according to my own standards of propriety."
Sarah's perfectly shaped eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"I believe I was quite clear." I maintained my calm tone, drawing on decades of dealing with condescending male colleagues in 1940s laboratories. "I'll attend your gala, but I'll behave as I see fit, not according to your expectations."