Mark and Dustin left Ty's bedroom, but June stayed. She closed the door. "Have you shown this to Lisa's parents, or told them about it?"
"Not yet," said Ty.
"I don't know how they'll react to your having gone 'far away' without telling them," June said, "but Lisa, are they interested in space in general?"
"Oh, yes," said Lisa. "Mom is especially interested!"
"Well," June said, "I'll leave it two you two to decide exactly how much to tell to whom, but I need to know that you'll tell at least one of them."
"I was at least planning to tell Diego," Ty said. "About breaking the rules, but that it was for Lisa's benefit. I was hoping to avoid explaining that in detail, but as I told you earlier, if he wants to do anything about my breaking the rule, I'll accept it."
"Oh, Ty, I don't think he will," Lisa said.
"Nevertheless," Ty said, "Just as I admitted it to June, I'm going to admit it to Diego."
June said, "You can tell him that you told me first, just because the opportunity arose first, and that I am choosing not to impose any penalty because I think that you acted responsibly and then admitted breaking the rule. Of course, I'm not trying to force his hand."
After pausing for thought, June said, "Would you like me to be present when you talk to Diego?"
Ty looked at Lisa. "I'm OK with it if you are," he said.
"Oh, that's fine with me," Lisa added. "Should we talk to him now?"
Ty said, "Yes, if he's available." June nodded.
"I'll go get him," Lisa said, and walked through the portal doorway to her bedroom, and then out the normal doorway into here house.
Lisa wasn't gone long, by Ty was nervous. "I'm sure he'll be reasonable," June said. Ty nodded.
Before long, Lisa came back to Ty's bedroom, with Diego in tow. "I told dad that you have something to tell him," Lisa said to Ty, "but I also told him that if there is any blame, I share it."
June said to Diego, "I offered to stay, as Ty and Lisa have already explained things to me, but if you'd prefer to talk to them alone, I'll go."
"No, no," Diego said, "please stay." He turned to Ty. "So what is it you need to tell me?"
"Diego, this afternoon, for about half an hour, I went very far away, and took Lisa with me, without telling you or Maria, or my own parents. It was very important at the time, and I felt like if you knew the reason, you wouldn't be upset about it, but that's for you to decide now."
"I did it with Lisa's best interest at heart, because I had, despite my promise, put her in danger, and this trip was necessary to make her safe again."
"OK," Diego said. "I apreciate that you have admitted to breaking both the rule about keeping Lisa safe, and the rule about letting us know where you are."
Lisa started to interrupt, but Diego stopped her. "Let me finish talking to Ty, and then you can say your piece. Ty, you say that the trip was necessary. Can you explain a bit more about that?"
Ty aside, "Honestly, I'd prefer not to do into too much detail about what happened, except that it was a very serious situation, and I felt that it needed immediate action, and the action could not be taken here."
"May I say something now?" Lisa asked.
Diego said, "Ty hasn't really answered my question yet, but OK."
Lisa said, "You should know that the rule about keeping me safe, which Ty admitted to breaking, he did without knowing that it would potentially harm my safety, and even more importantly, he did it AT MY REQUEST. Neither of us knew it would be dangerous, and once Ty found out, he literally did everything in his power, IMMEDIATELY, to resolve the issue."
Diego said, "That's all good to know, though I still don't understand at all what's actually going on. Ty, could you please be less vague about it?"
Ty said, "I'm happier to speak about the solution than the problem that requried it. If, after we've spoke about the solution, you actually demand the full details of the problem, then I'll explain it, provided that Lisa agrees. But do you mind if I explain the solution first?"
June said, "Diego, I didn't make Ty explain the problem to me, but he explained the solution and I was satisfied that he'd done the right thing to fix it, and I was proud of him admitting to me that he'd broken rules, when he actually could have hidden that, and I'd never have been the wiser."
"That seems like an odd way to go about this," Diego said, "but OK."
"As Lisa just said," Ty began, "as soon as I knew that there was a problem, I started working on fixing it. The fix was going to need a lot of computing power. I started trying to use my laptop computer. It didn't have enough memory, so I added more. The computer started working on the problem, and told me that the solution was expected to take ten trillion years."
Diego's eyes bugged out, but he said nothing, letting Ty continue.
"At this point I was in a panic, and it was about half an hour before my family would have dinner. Obviously I couldn't take ten trillion years to solve the problem, and was hoping to solve it in that half hour to avoid having to explain the problem. Obviously solving the problem with my laptop was not going to work, because the laptop just wasn't powerful enough, by more than seventeen orders of magnitude.
"I made my bedroom bigger, to accomodate a copy of El Capitan, the most powerful supercomputer in existence. I started the process of using El Capitan to solve the problem, and it was better. it was only going to take five million years. To solve the problem in half an hour, I needed a computer 90 billion times faster than El Capitan. I expaned my bedroom again, to immense size, and tried to create such a supercomputer, but found that I couldn't do it. I'll spare you the details, but what I found is that my power can't create something of that much mass, without the mass coming from somewhere."
"That makes sense," Diego said, "to the extent that anything about your power does."
Ty continued. "So I tried to figure out what I could use for a source of mass for that powerful a computer. I quickly ruled out the Earth, Moon, and Mars, and then thought about Jupiter. It would be a pittance for Jupiter, and if the mass didn't leave Jupiter orbit, no one would notice a change."
"Jupiter orbit?" Diego asked.
"That's right," said Ty. "I created a space station, as a ring orbiting Jupiter, which could support the mass of the required computer system, and provide the necessary radiation shielding. Then I created the computer itself, and a means of powering it from the Sun. I made sure that life support was working in the control room, and that there were suitable space suits for emergency (though teleporting was the real emergency plan). Then I teleported Lisa and myself to the station, and started the process."
"You used a supercomputer in Jupiter orbit to solve whatever this problem is that you had created with Lisa?"
"That's right, Diego," Ty said. "As soon as she was OK, we teleported back. Then had dinner with my family."
"But as I was calling Ty to dinner, and Lisa if she wanted to join us," June said, "Ty insisted on telling me that he'd broken the rule on not going out without letting us know where he'd be."
"I see," said Diego, though he continued to look puzzled. "And I assume you destroyed the supercomputer and space station afterward, their purpose fulfilled?"
"No. They're still there. In fact, after we ate dinner, I invited everyone to join me there, to see outer space for themselves. An offer I extend to you and Maria, as well."
"Please, dad! Come with us and see!" Lisa implored.
"Um, OK," Diego said, "Just to confirm your story. Not that I think you're lying, but you have to admit, it's a pretty unbelievable story."
"Yes, I know," Ty said. "I don't mind that you want to see for yourself."
"What do we do?" Diego asked.
"I'm double-checking the life support now, and making sure there's a space suit your size, though we won't need it." Ty paused for a moment. "OK, now it's not necessary, but it's easiest if we hold hands."
They did, and Ty's bedroom disappeared again.