F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
3rd Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© July 2018 Written by David Wicker
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not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 59 -
"The Reckoning"
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This chapter is Rated: TEEN
Back to the future, things were happening rapidly.
Although the Gate was completely and utterly destroyed, a warning klaxon sounded that there was a discrepancy in the time flux continuum.
Learby, Murphy, and many other scientists were watching on the screen. Visually they saw layers of pretty blue round disks overlaying each other and at the bottom, some kind of red catalyst like a cancer was devouring the disks starting at the bottom.
"Tell me again." Learby demanded.
Murphy nodded, "As you know. For some strange reason all life signs from the soldiers we sent back in time just died in the past few minutes. We still don't know why.
Learby sighed, tired, but spoke, "That's unfortunate. But what's causing THIS ?" and he pointed to the red gnawing at the blue disks.
Murphy continued, "This is a representation of our time. The lowest being the beginning of creation. The red is - well, for lack of a better word, it's CORRECTING some problem in the time continuum."
"What is that problem ?"
Murphy shook his head, "I have an idea but I'm not certain. I know it didn't happen until our team was wiped out. Somehow - somehow they are connected to it."
"This seems dangerous." Learby admitted, looking at the voracious gnawing at the disks. "What will happen if we don't do anything ?"
Murphy's eyes grew wide with fright. "The 'cancer' that is eating at the bottom of creation will start to work its way up, into the Paleozoic, then the Mesozoic, the Cenozoic, BC, AD, and eventually Middle Ages and what was then called "Modern Ages."
"What is this cancer doing ?"
Murphy tapped a few controls to enlarge the red area showing horrid little round blobs with razor sharp teeth. "We know little about this 'correction' that is taking place. The closest we can come to a definition is what was fictional years ago, apparently reality now, called Langoliers.
"So what is - what are Langoliers ?"
"No-one has ever seen one and lived. It's like a giant mouth with teeth sharp enough to cut through adamantium, diamond, and fusion zero coal. Their job, as near as anyone can tell, is to make corrections to time by devouring parts of it that are causing disturbances in reality."
Learby whistled, "That's a real brainweave. Okay, is there any way to stop it ?"
Murphy shook his head again, "Nossir. There isn't. As mentioned these are 'correctional' mouths that devour reality. We don't dare send anyone near them - and according to our sensors they are made out of a substance even stronger than Graphene or Nano-Kevlar. There would be no way to stop them or even disrupt a single atom let alone a molecule of their design."
"We can't stop them." Murphy concluded.
"So we're all doomed !?" Learby said, his voice rising in panic.
Murphy smiled. "I don't think so. We know this didn't happen until our remaining team of time travelers, all three of them, suddenly died at once."
Someone else spoke, "How can we possibly know this ? Doesn't them being in the past somehow wipe it from our own memory of their existence ?"
Murphy tapped the table he was sitting at. "You should already know the logistics involving quantum time mechanics, but that's fine. I can explain if you like."
He stood up and called forth a black screen. Five points of light appeared at his fingertips and he started drawing directly on the screen with them.
"Time is linear. At least, that's what we've believed for millions of years. Today we know differently. The simplest explanation is that observing something, even non-living, already gives that same something the ability to change because of its observation. And all life affects all other life, no matter whether it is: animal, vegetable, mineral, atomic, protea, nucleic, or zerosum."
* * *
There was silence to this so he continued.
"Despite popular science-fiction science, in truth you cannot meet yourself. That is, you cannot travel back in time to when you were a boy or girl and tell yourself something that you will remember now. Neither can you shoot or kill one of your parents and somehow never be born."
"That does not happen. Each time period does not affect the others, there is no glass spider's web linking them. We have calculated this into our new math and experiments in real time travel."
"Time is full of safeguards as we know today. For instance, if you were to travel now into the past to try and meet yourself, the time continuum would see you yourself as the most efficient configuration to keep.
To do this, time would alter itself so you never existed - except for that one copy of yourself that did the time traveling initially. And of course that also affects whether or not you may or may not have had parents you are familiar with by the time you arrive. All of these elements are linked - but only from that time period !"
Murphy drew semi-circles in multiple-colors with arrows leading in and around them. And wrote mathematical jargon at the bottom including a familiar one.
"E equals M C squared, translated roughly, energy equals Mass times the speed of light squared. While Einstein's theory satisfied familiar science of the past, today we know differently. Energy is in fact infinite, immeasurable, where the light or mass is eternal."
"It is possible to generate this energy to make a correction in a flaw of reality by creating a 'hole' if you will - "and Murphy drew a large circle to cut through half of the other semi-spheres.
"All of reality has a kind of invisible gravity to it. We call it or these Maxions. This 'hole' is the point of least resistance, the gravity well, and with it, we can make corrections to errors, or, let me be more specific, 'problems' that have been created because of discrepancies and minuscule errors in time travel."
Murphy then sat down, "And to answer your question, Learby, yes. We can make a correction. We can create this gravity well to make repairs."
"A hole ?" Learby asked.
Murphy shook his head. "Not as such. But we're going to do is create an anomaly. Where reality will choose what we build rather than what just happened. If we are successful, the 'cancer' will vanish, all the damage the Langoliers did will vanish, and time will resume its normal course.
"What do you have in mind ?"
Murphy stood up again. He tapped the holographic board and it went black. He tapped his fingers together and colored points of light appeared on them again. He then crudely drew four humanoid figures on the board.
He addressed the members, "These are the people that died. We know that Flair died inside the Gate, and this did not cause much of a problem to the main mission. However, it is causing a problem that the remainder of the crew died just recently."
"The Langoliers will eat from the dawn of time all the way up to that point, where our three soldiers died. But if they do, I doubt they will stop there. As we are the time zone that created this 'problem,' our sending the team through the Gate, likely the Langoliers will appear here and wipe out our entire existence to leave no trace of the discrepancy."
He started drawing on the board again, "But here is what we can do. We already have teleportation technology. Many people use it to travel to the Leisure Planets for vacation sites. Sometimes they are used just to get to where you want in a hurry without requiring spacecraft. Today it is a safe and accurate technology. Okay."
"What we need to do is recreate the crew that were lost. There are three of them we need to worry about. Using the last pattern recorded in the protected teleportation memory circuits, we should be able to 'bring them back' and I use that word loosely."
Someone outside of staff raised their hand for a question.
"Yes, Dr. Morrows, you have a question ?" Murphy asked, pointing to him.
Morrows stood up for a second to speak. "Will they be back ? I mean, will they be alive when we return them here ?"
Murphy scratched his head, trying to think of a good answer to this.
"Yes and no. Yes, they will be alive, but no, I don't think they can stay. That is, time will be corrected, the Langoliers will leave, but I don't think we have technology EXACT enough to actually and truly extract them to where they are perfectly alright again, where they are aware of where they are, who they are, and how they can affect and influence their own future."
Morrows smiled slightly, "You think there is an intelligence behind this."
Murphy raised his eyebrows, "You mean to keep time flowing correctly ?"
He nodded.
Murphy nodded with him, "That's a good observation on your part. While this has never been proven, all indicators point to 'something' that has permitted us to time travel without destroying the universe. Without imploding whole galaxies. If you really look at the math and science behind time travel, it should be completely and utterly impossible. Like matter reacting with antimatter."
Murphy held a hand out and flipped it askantly, "Those of you atheists out there give that some thought. We've already proven there is an intelligence out there that keeps us from blowing each other up with our time travel experimentation. Proof of God or ... something else."
He went back on track. "Yes, we can prove this 'plug' exists by simple extremes. t it was proven, that if you get something hot enough, it freezes solid. Or if it's cold enough it, it becomes hotter than the brightest star. There is a loop in the universe. The safety catch. And one that keeps us from blowing up each other."
He looked heavenward, "And no I don't know who or WHAT it is that put this safety catch on reality so we don't suddenly atomize the universe."
Morrows sat back down. Murphy tapped the board to clear it and addressed the scientists and staff, speaking louder.
"There is no question at all. If we do nothing, all life in all of time itself will cease to exist. But with what we talked about, to recreate the crew, we have a chance. It's not a great one but it's there - and we're taking it."
He pointed with his hand, "Learby, Summers, Dr. Yandu, and Dr. Philips, we'll reconvene in Central's computer library, division EK-483, where human patterns are stored for teleportation."
He stood to attention and saluted the group, "Central !"
Everyone stood up to attention suddenly and returned the salute. Learby was firm, asserting his position by pounding his hand on the table there. "Let's make some life, people !"
END OF
CHAPTER 59
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