“Sept, 1rst, 2002, 8:00 Am: It is the first day of our temporal experiments. We have been preparing the capsule and the lasers all month. We are all looking forward to the outcome of these experiments, traveling back in time to the moment the lasers are turned on. The first test will be done at 8:30. We will be sending a lab mouse back to 8:30, from 9:00.”
-The Journal of Temporal Labs in Connecticut.
The switch was flipped, the large hum of fusion generators powering up filled the large empty room. The lights on the ceiling turned on. David stood in the door way. It was 2500, September 1rst, 7:00 am. The 498 anniversary of the first temporal experiments, today they would try again. David looked around the room, it was large and gray, concrete gray. Near the left wall were the fusion generators, 5 large square tanks about the size of an SUV. Large wires were coming out of them, some of them led to a large canal climbing up on the walls, and across ceiling and floor. Others led to a large screen and computer terminal, with what appeared to be a comfortable chair. Other than these few objects the room was barren. David shut the door, and walked to the computer terminal, put down his duffle bag, sat in the chair and waited.
“Sept, 1rst, 2002, 9:00 Am: The experiment has failed. The mouse did not move through time. The lasers have been on since 8:30, the readings show everything to be working. A news report comes to mind, a 16 year old boy I believe it was, said to a reporter, ‘It will never work, well…not on earth anyway, maybe in space. You see the earth is moving, both vertically, laterally, and has a rotational spin. And to compound the problems earth has 2 lateral movements. It must go around the sun. With all of this movement each time the earth moves the ‘time machine’ must make a new hole in time.’ No one took him seriously. Except it appears now as if he may be right, I can see now the certain logic in his thoughts, the question is, how do we get to an area of absolute stillness?”
-The Journal of Temporal Labs in Connecticut.
The screen flickered to life. “David you ready to come aboard?” He looked at the screen, and told the man that he was ready. Just then the canals started to glow a pale white, growing brighter and brighter. Until finally, they were a blinding light, David turned his head away from the device, and shielded his eyes. Things started to go dimmer, and there where a wall once was there appeared to be an image of where he was going, it appeared to have glowing light on the edges. A large room like the one he was in, except that it had much different machinery. He looked at it, and was stupefied. “You can come in now” It was the man on the computer. David had known what to expect, but just the glory of what it looked like was amazing. The man from the computer stepped through the gateway and into the large room David was in. “You had better hurry or you are gonna miss your window. My name is John by the way.” John started to push David gently toward the gate. It was like emerging from water. You can feel the difference of going to the surface, and know where the water ends, but you can’t see where the surface of the water is. Suddenly he was in the other room, his destination. Then the light of the gate went out after John had come through. “Welcome to the no movement zone. The only area in the galaxy where there is no gravity to move us. The only thing keeping you on the ground is artificial gravity.”
“Sept, 8th, 2002, 10:00 am: Word got out that we did not get the experiment to work. They eventually tracked down the boy who knew it would not work. The world was amazed, he was one of the few dozen people on earth who thought it would not work. ‘Ok, now the second problem they will have is how to get in the capsule if you turn it on before you get in, you will kill your self trying, unless you can get all of your molecules to go in at one time.’ I am starting to believe this kid, but no one else does, they think it was a fluke in the systems. After all, would you believe someone with a PHD in physics, or someone who has not finished high school when it comes to time travel?”
-The Journal of Temporal Labs in Connecticut.
“John, can I ask you something?” David was a bit confused about how he got here, “If we can get here, where ever we are, in an instant why do we still have cars?” John looked at him, then at the floor, finding a way to answer both questions. “Right now, we are out side our normal galaxy, we are out side the reaches of any gravity source. As to why we still have cars, Space folding only works if you have line of site. On a curved surface it is useless.” John tried to explain everything he knew about it, which was limited. He stepped toward a small capsule with rings around it. “I still don’t understand how this is supposed to work.” David told him with out taking his eyes off the machine. “It rips a hole in space using light. Everything that has mass can bend space, the effect of this is gravity; we use a similar principle for artificial gravity. Light even bends space, so by making the light travel in these fiber optic cables,” John was pointing at the large tubes that wrapped around the capsule, “we can in theory rip a hole in space-time. Get ready to get in there in about an hour.” David looked at his watch, it was 7:30. They wanted to time this exactly. At 8:30 he would step in capsule and some one would turn it on. It was going to be in celebration of the first temporal experiments.
“Sept., 10th, 2002, 12:00 pm: I have tracked down this 16 year old boy, well apparently he is now 17. I talked to him about his space time theories. He sounds intelligent enough to have thought it through. He had me going, until I asked him about where he got his ideas. His answer was disillusioning; television, and movies. He watched movies and found what he thought was truth. I don’t know if his predictions of the failures of the project are true any more. He tried to explain how the writers try to capture all sides of this to play out and exaggerate it in movies. I don’t know. Maybe he is right; all I know is that our first experiments failed. Maybe we missed some crucial thing to make this work.”
-The Journal of Temporal Labs in Connecticut.
David stepped up to the capsule. He noticed there was what appeared to be a portal large enough to fit a person through, the wires winded around the door way. David stepped into the capsule and found it was almost claustrophobic. There was barely enough room for his bag. John had turned on the switch to power up the lasers. “Good…” He was unable to finish his sentence, the lasers turned on and a hole in time was created. David saw john frozen in one spot. The beginning of the letter g was echoing in the capsule. David opened his bag, got out a few instruments and took some measurements. This killed about 5 minutes in the capsule, but took literally no time out side of it. Time to get out of this damn thing, David thought. As David put his hand through the doorway there was an immense feeling of pain, and he quickly withdrew it. Only to find that his finger tip had bee severed, and it was gushing blood. Looking back at the door way he saw his finger tips floating in the same spot that he put his hand. He quickly put on a bandage that he packed. Oh shit, I have no way of getting out of here. David franticly looked around the walls for anything to turn off the power or destroy the laser grid, but it ended on vain. David was powerless; he just sat down on the floor of his cell, waiting for death, or an act of God.
“There is no way of getting this to work on earth, [there are] too many movements. However, if someone does find a way to make it work, then once they try to get in they [will] sever a limb or two. Because it is a one way trip, what ever goes in is instantly transported back to the instant that the machine is turned on, there is no way you can safely get in the devise once it is turned on. If you are in it, then you are going to die. There is no way to get out; you constantly exist in one instant there is no way out. Unless you have someway to turn off the power in the device, but even then there is the chance of that failing. The only thing you have made is a device to house death sentences in, death in an instant on the outside, slow and painful on the inside. The project should be scraped. There is no way you are going to go back in time safely with this idea.”
-Excerpt from an interview with the 17 year old boy about his ideas on how it will fail.
God never came to his rescue, and David was never heard of again. He was the first and only human test subject for the time machine. After word got out that someone was missing, most likely dead, the project was scraped. It appears as if the 17 year old was correct in telling us what would happen. Temporal research is no longer in action, and John Williams has been sentenced to jail for life for the involuntary manslaughter of David James.
Click here to email your thoughts on this story to the author.
I really want to hear what YOU have to say about my work.
