In a brightly lit room, a group of people was all sitting in chairs, their faces toward a whiteboard. They all were wearing different clothes with equally different expressions on their faces. Some were murmuring while others were silent with a serious look on them.

Suddenly the door of the room opened and a man carrying a folder walked inside with long strides. He was wearing military clothes and a grim face. The man was quite tall with a well-built body. His uniform had a one-star silver insignia on the shoulder with several ribbons on them. As soon as the man stopped in front of the whiteboard, the noise in the room died down. He opened the folder he was carrying and put it down on the table near the board.

"I believe most of you know why you are here but I will say it again." He paused and looked at the faces of the people in the room. They were all looking at him silently.

"It's about the result of our experiment with the device. The experiment was a failure and on top of that, the test subject alpha died after entering the device. We know that because the device rejected his badly burnt dead body back approximately 4 hours after the subject entered." He continued.

After hearing what the man had said, the room which was silent a moment ago burst into chaos. People were all arguing with each other while the man just looked on. "Silence," said the man with a booming voice, and the room was quiet again.

"General Jacob, that can't be right. We built the device exactly as written in the instruction and we even sent a test animal to check and it entered the device and teleported to the destination without any problem", argued a man wearing glasses.

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The man called Jacob was a Brigadier General of the Army, Jacob Kirkland, and the person in command of the project. He was 56 years old and a war vet with several military awards.

"While the animal indeed didn't encounter any problem, but this time we did encounter a problem," the general countered.

Another man from the group stood up and said, "But that was just a week ago and how could it fail now." People in the room were joining their voices in agreement.

The General then motioned them to keep silent.

With a sigh, he said, "The animal we sent was a success, but the fact is our subject was killed. Not only that but there's some more bad news. After the subject arrived dead at the destination, the device stopped responding and it seemed to shut down itself. All the attempt to start the device back on has failed."

After the group of people lets that info sink, their faces showed disappointment and worry.

"Does that mean we cannot start it again", said a guy.

"We have to try to start the device anyhow. It is such an advanced technology that we will surely change the whole world with it." Another woman hurriedly spoke.

People inside the room were one of the best in their fields and were brought together to help build the project. But now it seems the project is in jeopardy and if we cannot start the device again, we will be shut down, the general thought to himself.

Already people in the government were skeptical about the project and hesitant to fund it and if that problem couldn't be fixed, then it would be the end of the project.

"The most important thing to do now is to figure out how to restart the device. Without it, we cannot do anything. So, it's for the best that you all should focus on how to fix the problem. All the data generated from the test is in the main control room. Ask the guys there for more info and help solve it. That's the only thing we can do right now. That's it, you're all dismissed."

After saying his mind, the general left the room moving through the shadows of the corridor, leaving the group inside.

It seems that there is a long road ahead before this project works, the general mused as he walked down the corridor.