The minutes seemed eternities, and then the girl reached out and closed the dial. The hum of power receded, clicked off and was replaced by a deathly silence.
"Did they understand?" asked Kingsley, and even as he spoke the light blinked red again.
Kingsley's hand closed around Gary's arm and his harsh whisper rasped in Gary's ear.
"Instantaneous!" he said. "Instantaneous signals! They got her message and they are answering. That means the signals are routed through some extra-dimension.”
Swiftly the red light blinked. Caroline crouched forward in the chair, her body tensed with what she heard.
The light blinked off and the girl reached up and tore the helmet off.
"It can't be right," she sobbed. "It can't be right.”
Gary sprang forward, put an arm around her shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Those messages," she cried. "They come from the very edge of all the universe… from the farthest rim of exploding space!”