As the team travels to the ITC laboratory in Black Rock, Stern asks Gordon about the concept of transit through quantum foam. Gordon explains that to travel between multiverses, objects (and humans) must be compressed in a manner similar to how images are compressed for faster transmission. In order to do this, ITC uses quantum computers that have incredible processing power. The team arrives at the ITC headquarters, and Robert Doniger meets with Chris, Kate, André Marek, and David Stern. He says that Johnston threatened to tell the world about ITC’s quantum technology, so three days ago, they allowed him to use it to travel back in time. He still has not returned. Doniger says that before this incident, no one has ever left the machine to explore the other world; he claims that Traub’s death has nothing to do with this project and insists that the technology is safe.

With Gordon, the graduate students begin preparing for their trip back to 1357.

Gordon has an employee named Gomez demonstrate the technology. The transportation machines are summoned and directed using navigational markers. He explains that the machines have 37 hours in their battery cells and that they cannot be summoned unless they have two meters of space on all sides.