To one side, a neat control-board occupied a wall-space. A larger area was given over to a screen somewhat like that of a television set.
Warily, Burke picked his way over to the screen. Now that he was here, his stomach showed a strong tendency to quiver. Despite all the long nights he'd spent in this room with The Professor, he found himself doubting his own ability to operate the inverter. As for the theory of the thing, that was completely beyond him.
But it was no time for doubt. Switching on the power, Burke carefully set about adjusting the control dials.
Latitude and longitude came first, down to minutes and then seconds. A moment's tuning, and Crete and then the Great Palace of Knossos lay before him on the scanner screen.
Falling back a step, Burke rubbed the nape of his neck where it ached from strain.
Time adjustment, now. A new set of dials.
The screen changed before his eyes. The work of excavation and reconstruction vanished. Off to one side, olive groves appeared. Then a building with unmistakably Byzantine architecture flashed on.
Now whole towns came and went. One moment, the screen showed neat huts and cultivated fields; the next, ruins or no buildings at all.
But never a trace of people. People moved too quickly for even the finest settings of the time-spindles to show them.
And now there was only a great, dark ring on the hillside to mark the palace. Wall-blocks and pillars lay strewn like scorched blocks in all directions. It was as if lightning had blasted the very earth. The few huts to be seen stood far off, as if the site of Knossos were a place accursed, to be avoided under pain of death.
A chill touched Burke; and though he'd seen this sight a dozen times before, his fingers trembled.
As swiftly as it had darkened, the screen came bright. The palace rose again, white gypsum walls and columns aglisten in the sunlight.
Skillfully, Burke adjusted the detail dial, working forward again to the moment when the palace had crumbled.
The disaster came at night; that was plain to see. And so fast that the screen could not record the instant when it happened. One second, the buildings were there, solid as only rock could make them.
The next, there were only dark, blighted ruins.