A man lay down in a small shack, anxiously looking out at the pre-dawn desert through a heavily tinted square of glass. As he watches, his mind starts racing. He thinks of his family, of his inheritance when his father died, of his time at Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, of his discussions with Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, and of when his current situation was just an idea in the minds of a few ambitious men...

The fierce June sun beat down on the dry landscape, stirring up a hot breeze. As the dust which so thoroughly covered everything began to settle, another breeze would whisk it up and carry it off to another place. Such is the pattern of existance along this dusty road in northern New Mexico.

"So, what do you think? Is it possible?" The question was being addressed over the noise of the Jeep's engine to he, who was in the passenger seat.

"Oh, certainly. The question is, is it practical? It all works in theory, but there are a few things that we're having a little trouble ironing out."

"Well, that's why you're here, Oppenheimer. Word is that you're the best, so I guess you'll just have to iron them out."

"I suppose so, General." General Groves turned his attention back to the dusty road. They'd been on that same road for over an hour. The droning hum of the engine, the sound of the bare earth beneath the tires, the hot sun overhead, and the constantly shifting breeze took its toll on Professor Oppenheimer, lulling his body into a state of half-sleep, while his mind continued to function.

Project Y...Manhattan...U-235...It's going to take a while to get used to the idea of being so important. What I help come up with might actually determine who wins this damn war. I don't exactly know what to think about being in this sort of position. I mean, I've always loved atomic physics, but a bomb? First Cambridge, then Gottingen, Berkeley, Cal Tech...I've been so many places and done so many things. I've taught so many young minds about how the physical world works -- about all the practical uses of atomic physics...

"I saw some of the work that was going on back at the Research Center," the General said, interrupting Oppenheimer's train of thought. "I wasn't impressed. One of Fermi's co-scientists was showing me some of the math involved in figuring out how much uranium to use, and I noticed a simple calculation error he had made that changed the whole answer. When I asked how reliable the final numbers would be, Fermi himself told me that it would be correct to within a power of ten! I couldn't believe it. If he got 100 for his answer, he wouldn't know whether to use 10 units or 1,000! I told him to speed up his research and try to come up with a reasonable number."

Oppenheimer paused to come up with an answer. "Well, you have to consider that of all the sciences, atomic physics is about the newest. Not much is known about how subatomic particles and energy release work, and we're doing the best we can just to stay on top of all the numbers we get from our research."

"That's what Fermi said when I asked him."

"The simple reason for that is because it's true." He really didn't want to keep going with this conversation. "How much farther is it anyway? I've lost track of the miles."

"Hmm...looks like another 20 miles or so to go," Groves replied, looking at the Jeep's odometer. "I think we're about 70 miles out of Albuquerque. It's hot as hell out here, isn't it?" With a sigh, he wiped his forehead with his sleeve and returned his attention to the road again. Once again faced with the road, the Jeep, the sun and the breeze, Oppenheimer continued to ponder his situation.

What was it that I was thinking? I can't quite...oh, yes. Yeah, I remember Cal Tech. That was great, working with all those fresh, hungry minds eager to learn about the different worlds within the world... Sometimes I miss teaching. It's nice that I still have the opportunity to keep up my research, though. I don't know what I'd do if they took that away, too.

Hmm. I'll be trying to find a way to build an atomic bomb -- a bomb which will be based on my knowledge of the quantum and relativity theories, and the workings of atomic particles. They want to use my knowledge to "end the war". Will it really do that? One can't be sure, when Germany could develop the same technology before us. If they did that, then the end of the war might only be when one nation or the other is completely destroyed. And what about Japan? Would bombing Germany be sufficient to scare Japan away? And if we were to drop the bomb on Japan, what would the Germans do? Would they speed up their work on the bomb or shy away and try to make "peace"? I don't know...I don't know if I even want to be a part of this. One bomb could kill thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people. Would it be worth it to kill that many people? People with lives...families...homes. After teaching so many about how physics can serve mankind, should I...can I...turn it against mankind? Not that I have a choice in the matter. All of this is so frustrating...

The Jeep approached the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, which was still under construction. General Groves pulled around into a parking lot, which was no more than a cleared area of dusty ground with some military vehicles on it. As the men got out of their Jeep, the General directed Oppenheimer toward one of the buildings which used to make up the Los Alamos Ranch School, which he had known so many years previous.

"That's where the meeting is. We've pulled together some of the finest minds available to help you out here, so go to it -- and don't let us down. After all, this is taxpayer-funded!" And with that, the General laughed a robust laugh and went with Oppenheimer into the dirty white building.

They both looked around the room. Finest minds? He wasn't kidding. Seth Neddermeyer and John von Neumann -- and Edward Teller sitting over there! Quite a crew... His qualms were somehow lost in the moment as he thought about the prospect of working with these men. And with an excited look in his eye, Julius Robert Oppenheimer cemented history as he approached the front of the room to speak to his new colleagues.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is Professor Robert Oppenheimer, and I'm here to help you build an atomic bomb."

"TWENTY SECONDS!" a loud voice said, forcing his mind back to the present. After focusing on the situation at hand, he lays a little closer to the ground.

"TEN SECONDS!" He makes sure he has a good vantage point through the small gray viewer in the wall of the shack.

"FIVE!" Okay, don't look up until after the initial flash...

"FOUR!"

"THREE!" I wonder what it will look like...

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

The final second had to be the longest in human history. The world seemed to stand still as everything he had ever done in his life came back to him. Even with his eyes closed, he was momentarily blinded from the flash which followed. Upon regaining his sight, he looked up. He lay stricken with awe and disbelief as a fireball brighter than the sun rose 40,000 feet into the pre-dawn sky, illuminating everything as far as could be seen. A few long seconds later, the blast wave hit the shack, all but ripping it from its foundations. Above the loud CRACK of every board in the small building shifting at once was the deafening roar of hundred-mile-per-hour winds as they ripped by. He felt the entire shack shake as the winds reversed their direction, returning to fill the void which had been created. When it was considered safe, everyone left the shack and went to the site of detonation.

"Where's the damn tower? It just disappeared! Just LOOK at the crater..." Words of disbelief circulated around the small group. Oppenheimer could not believe what his eyes were telling him either.

"Everything was just VAPORIZED... We were only expecting a one to five kiloton explosion... That must have been at least TWENTY..." Only one thought occupied his mind as he stood there in the midst of his handiwork.

God...What have I done?

And the dust began to settle.