"Wait a minute. Play that bit again."

"I'm taking some notes. I want a copy of that writing. "

"Do we have any record of those notes?"

"I'll check the data, sir."

"I'm taking some notes. I want a copy of that writing. "

"We've got something coming through. There was a man from that expedition who disappeared for a few years. He worked for the WSF for twenty years, as director and then president. It was his pioneering work which led to the theory of using time-holes to send probes back to the past. He disappeared suddenly, without trace, in 1992. That's all we have on him, sir, unless you would like the detailed account."

"That will do for now, thanks."

The crowd of scientists played the recording again, taking notes and discussing the results. One of the men in the room sat very quiet. He seemed to be hardly listening. In his mind, he was remembering that day, long ago, when he and his two friends had climbed the frozen wasteland, higher and higher into the sky.

It had been a day of possibilities.