Karyn grabbed Jon's arm. "Shit, Jon, we're in too deep here! She'll be here any minute! Use the stone!"
Jon really wanted more time to think about a good wish to make. He didn't want to blow it. And that gave him an idea: More time. He fished the stone out of his pocket, and said, "I wish that our ARD units can manipulate the flow of time as perceived by the user. I wish that this feature is also linked between the two units."
The stone flashed, their gazes were forced away from their wrists for a second, and then the faces of their "watches" had a new control mode, TIME RATE. The current value was set to 1:1.
Karyn said, "Ooh, I like it. And it's not limiting at all because it's on the ARDs and not us. Quick, use it now."
Jon needed outside confirmation that this new ARD feature was working. "Replomat, display the current time, with microseconds, on your screen."
The Replomat obliged. It displayed the current time, 16:35:14.#*****. Jon's eyes could barely keep up with the rapidly changing tenths place, and the last five figures were an unreadable blur.
Jon pressed a button on his ARD, and the rate changed to 1:2... and several things happened at once. The light in the room dramtically brightened, and it appeared like the walls were painted blue. They felt like they were in an elevator rapidly ascending, and it was difficult to stand. Karyn stumbled. Jon realized right away that he'd goofed; the Replomat's clock had sped up. Now it was going twice as fast! "Oops!" Jon nudged the other control, and the rate went back to 1:1, and the room's light and gravity returned to normal, as did the Replomat's clock speed. "OK, that was the wrong way!"
Jon tried the other direction, 2:1. The clock now was running slower, like he wanted. But the room was much dimmer, and everything was redder. The elevator felt like it was dropping rapidly, and his stomach started doing weird things.
"Jon, this feels like we're in the bouncy room at the carnival!" Karyn tensed her legs, jumped, and her hands touched the ceiling.
Jon wished he'd paid more attention in Physics class. He bet Mr. Ashworth would know more about what was happening.
"I wish that the ARDs will automatically compensate for the light and gravity effects."
The "elevator effect" stopped, and the room's light returned to normal. The Replomat's clock continued at half-speed.
"OK, that's better." Jon nudged the controls again, to 10:1, and checked the Replomat's clock. It read 16:36:01.8#****, and now it was the hundredths place that he could barely follow. He pushed in the button and held it, and the setting wound down faster. He stopped when it was at 1000:1. The Replomat's clock read 16:36:03.141#**. The milliseconds place was now the one ticking along counting Jon and Karyn's seconds.
"OK, a thousand to one should give us enough time to think!"
