William Tenn - Brooklyn Project

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Brooklyn Project

William Tenn

The gleaming bowls of light set in the creamy ceiling dulled when the huge, circular door at the back of

the booth opened. They returned to white brilliance as the chubby man in the severe black jumper swung

the door shut behind him and dogged it down again.

Twelve reporters of both sexes exhaled very loudly as he sauntered to the front of the booth and

turned his back to the semi-opaque screen stretching across it. Then they all rose in deference to the

cheerful custom of standing whenever a security official of the government was in the room.

He smiled pleasantly, waved at them and scratched his nose with a wad of mimeo-graphed papers.

His nose was large and it seemed to give added presence to his per-son. "Sit down, ladies and

gentlemen, do sit down. We have no official fol-de-rol in the Brooklyn Project. I am your guide, as you

might say, for the duration of this ex-periment—the acting secretary to the executive assistant on press

relations. My name is not important. Please pass these among you."

They each took one of the mimeographed sheets and passed the rest on. Leaning back in the metal

bucket seats, they tried to make themselves comfortable. Their host squinted through the heavy screen

and up at the wall clock, which had one slowly revolving hand. He patted his black garment jovially

where it was tight around the middle.

"To business. In a few moments, man's first large-scale excursion into time will begin. Not by

humans, but with the aid of a photographic and recording device which will bring us incalculably rich data

on the past. With this experiment, the Brooklyn Project justifies ten billion dollars and over eight years of

scientific development; it shows the validity not merely of a new method of investigation, but of a weapon

which will make our glorious country even more secure, a weapon which our enemies may justifiably

dread.

"Let me caution you, first, not to attempt the taking of notes even if you have been able to smuggle

pens and pencils through Security. Your stories will be written en-tirely from memory. You all have a

copy of the Security Code with the latest additions as well as a pamphlet referring specifically to

Brooklyn Project regulations. The sheets you have just received provide you with the required lead for

your story; they also contain suggestions as to treatment and coloring. Beyond that—so long as you stay

within the framework of the documents mentioned—you are entirely free to write your stories in your

own variously original ways. The press, ladies and gentlemen, must remain untouched and

uncontaminated by government control. Now, any questions?"

The twelve reporters looked at the floor. Five of them began reading from their sheets. The paper

rustled noisily.

"What, no questions? Surely there must be more interest than this in a project which has broken the

last possible frontier—the fourth dimension, time. Come now, you are the representatives of the nation's

curiosity—you must have questions. Brad-ley, you look doubtful. What's bothering you? I assure you,

Bradley, that I don't bite."

They all laughed and grinned at each other.

Bradley half-rose and pointed at the screen. "Why does it have to be so thick? I'm not the slightest

bit interested in finding out how chronar works, but all we can see from here is a grayed and blurry

picture of men dragging apparatus around on the floor. And why does the clock only have one hand?"

"A good question," the acting secretary said. His large nose seemed to glow. "A very good question.

First, the clock has but one hand, because, after all, Bradley, this is an experiment in time, and Security

feels that the time of the experiment itself may, through some unfortunate combination of information

leakage and foreign corre-lation—in short, a clue might be needlessly exposed. It is sufficient to know

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William Tenn - Brooklyn Project

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