"If I thought I could, I would," John replied with all seriousness, putting a hand on Vance's arm like he once would have done with Charlie. He could fix it, but he could be there to have his back. "I'm just not sure if I'd be Atreyu or Bastian in that story," he added with a small smile.
"As for the theorists, well, I'd planned on that anyway. Things might have changed a bit, now. But, while we don't agree on all things involving technology, I doubt anyone other than Derek understands how easy it is to truly mess things up by playing with this sort of thing the way I do. I mean, if after accidentally wiping my own reason for existing out of the picture I haven't figured that lesson out...? That was something I'd wanted to talk to you about, though. We've done as much risk analysis as we can. And, between the three of us, we're pretty smart. But, we still don't know everything about how this works. And the design is, hopefully, improved but still based on the original. I worry that if the machine works, we'll just be creating this same problem over and over again in any place we end up if we've missed some crucial flaw that is the reason this is happening now. I was thinking now might be a good time to start thinking about failsafes and protocols for use of the machine. Something to make sure it doesn't end up being misused out of good intentions. I was thinking something like you and Deeks and I all had to give the go or something like that.
"And I know it's probably presumptuous including myself. But, as I said, I don't think anyone else has as much first hand knowledge of the damage we could do. And, Dom and Sheldon are the theorists."