The Titan time traveler was considerably larger than its alien prototype.  Instead of the latter's cylindrical form it had a cage-like structure, being square at both ends and ribbed with louvers.  One end contained the cabin for the crew and passengers, the other the bulky drive machinery.  It did, however, borrow some features from the alien design: the windows were of a thick nearly-opaque material possessing the quality of image-control, capable of being adjusted so as to admit or block light, and the control system copied the alien concept in its entirety.

Initially the machine's departure from the present was assisted by a second, even larger apparatus from whose maw it currently projected like a tongue, but once dispatched it flew under its own power and had no contact with the home base.  This fact was nagging at Heshke's consciousness as he tried to fight down his fears and allowed himself to be helped into the stiff combat armor the Titans had insisted he wear.

"Are you comfortable?" the young com-tech asked.

He nodded, though he was far from comfortable since the leather-like suit restricted all his movements.

For some minutes the Dispatch Room had been filled with a loud whine as the launcher was warmed up.  Ascar was already in his suit, as were the two technical officers who were to pilot the time traveler.  Ascar beckoned him forward.

"All set?  Your gear all ready?"

"It's on board."  Not that he anticipated using much; he didn't really know what he would do when be reached the ruins.

"Then let's take our places."

He followed Ascar into the time traveler.  The cabin was comparatively large, about nine feet by nine.  He sat down beside the physicist, strapping himself in.  The tech officers came in, wearing their combat suits with more grace and style, and settled into the pilots seats in the front of the cabin.  The whine from the Dispatch Room was cut off as the door slid shut: the time traveler was soundproof.

Heshke's muscles knotted up.  The tech officers murmured to one another and through microphones to the team outside.  A raw, fuzzy hum arose to their rear.

One of the Titans half turned his head to speak to them.  "We're away."

Was that all?  Heshke's stomach untensed itself.  He felt no sensation of motion; but through the semi-opaque windows he saw a runny blur of motion and color, phasing wildly to and fro as though the vehicle were pursuing an erratic course.

"Home," Ascar said to him.  "We're leaving home."

Heshke looked at him quizzically.

"Well of course it's home!" the other scowled impatiently.  "Don't you know what I mean?  Haven't you any vision?"

"I guess not."

"I mean we're leaving the Absolute Present.  That's home to us.  The only place in the universe where conscious life exists.  Just think of all of past time, stretching back and back into eternity.  The further back you go into it the further away you are from the brief intersection where life exists, until you would be like a ghost, a brief fragment of time in a timeless abyss... and the same if you go into the future.  Doesn't that get through to you?"

Ascar's eyes were bulging and there were tiny beads of perspiration on his brow.  "Is that what going back in time is like for you?"  Heshke asked quietly.  "Like falling into an abyss?"

"That's what it's like - a chasm without a bottom.  And we're descending into it."

Suddenly Heshke understood Ascar.  The man was afraid, for all that he had reassured Heshke.  He was afraid that something would go wrong and they would be cut off, unable to get back to the world of life and time.

He had too vivid an imagination; and he was getting a little melodramatic.  Heshke wondered if the physicist's five-year long obsession had left him mentally unbalanced.  After all, it was an awesome subject to have preying on one's mind.