Turn of the Century: 2100

By Charlie Pedersen

When quantum scientists and particle physics labs in eleven countries are contacted by a "photon probe" from the twenty second century, they are given the opportunity to change the world.But when the power of the future is revealed, it sets in motion a global race where terrorists, criminals, and the "technology Mafia" are intent on destroying which they can not control.
Turn Of the Century is a science fiction, suspense novel set in two tumultuous times. Amid the pages of romance and intrigue, this international novel begs the question: What potentials and threats would confront the human experience were real change a possibility?
Had God or the Forces of Nature created a parallel path in the universe without an expectation that someone would travel it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charlie Pedersen
• Release date: Jul 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465825988

Book preview

To:

My family and those who put up with me;

Steve Glaser… who always believed ; and Mom, who passed at ninety during this writing. Her life defined SISU(sea-sue), the Finnish term for strength of will in a world of powerful neighbors.

And for inspiration:

The early evolution of the Obama movement is all the evidence we need to show that the confrontation of our times is whether the forces of change can effectively overcome the power of the status quo and denial. On the international stage, it’s a clash of cultures and civilization. The agenda of the Jihadists is clear: Kill the Americans and their allies is the individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it. (Bin Laden, 1998)2 Comedians in our time, the new spokespeople for conscience and contra opinion, pose the proposition: The earth doesn’t need saving. It’s not going anywhere, we are! It will shake us off like a dog with a bad case of fleas.3

In 2006, a renowned mathematician and thinker, asked Yahoo answers: In a world that is in chaos politically, socially, and environmentally, can the human race sustain another 100 years?4This kind of consternation, frustration, and hope motivates me every day.

2. Suicide Terror: Wiley Press 2009

3. Paraphrase of George Carlin in an HBO special.

4. Question of Stephen Hawking on June 06, 2006.

Illustrations by [e-mail]

Photographs by Charlie Pedersen

Broader acknowledgements are in the appendices.

Prologue

Could electronic messaging (email) break through the space time continuum before any human Star Trek like endeavor? What if we could see the future? After all, email, blogging, face-book, u-tube, twitter, and the like are bursting through the borders of nations, cultures, and communication, why not time?

It may take someone from the twenty second century to teach us how to face the twenty first. The world has a spotty record when it comes to hindsight: hundreds of years of conflict over China and the Asian markets; thousands of years of conflict over the Middle East- Muslims, infidels, crusaders, Ottoman Empire, Israel; worldwide water and energy supply; genocide; wealth and health disparity; climate change; WWI/WWII; Vietnam/Iraq; floods and famine; proliferation of weapons; drugs; illegal immigration; Ignoring of the principles of the Sherman and Clayton anti-trust acts, especially on the international level , etc. We certainly seem to progress, but, in the twentieth century the wars got larger and the pandemics, famines, and genocide were more devastating than ever before. Are we simply marching to global warring? The early twenty first century doesn’t look very promising. So let’s try some futuresight. It may take the future’s hindsight to make us face choices in the twenty first century as a global village.

Take a trek with us when the future makes our world of science, law enforcement, and politics converge with the harsh reality that is the stage for Turn of the Century: 2100: Our tumultuous times. Come on now, we all know that the world isn’t going to change without facing the facts. And the operative word is change. It’s simply a matter of making the choices to minimize the body count and the degree of human degradation until we say enough. In the twentieth century, the world population grew from over a billion to over six billion people. It’s been great for many, but then there’s Africa, the Middle East, and much of Central and South America.

Explosive growth in Asia is testing the world’s resources and the implications of an increasingly co-dependent world. And then there’s global warming, the energy crises, growing fresh water stress, and a world health and sanitation imbalance.

Turn of the Century: 2100 brings together an unlikely cast, a shrinking world, and two centuries that are linked by the arrow of time…a convergence of suspense, passion, and conflict amidst the battle between the forces of positive action and denial.

After all, it’s a new century and it’s our turn.

Turn of the Century: 2100 asks the question, What if? What if someone came to us from one hundred years in the future offering a mid-course correction? Can you imagine our reaction? What happened? Why bother? Terrorists, Jihadists, human trafficking, water and energy crises, Middle East wars, nuclear proliferation, soaring health care costs, pandemics, climate change…..Does the future have a good reason to intervene? What went wrong??

Given our state of affairs, what do you think will happen in the next one hundred years? What about the next twenty five years? Do you feel a little uneasy?

Like a lightning bolt from Zeus on Mount Olympus, there are some sobering points raised by our seemingly godlike visitors from the twenty-second century, our foretellers of the consequences of an unmodified future. The interactive model between humanity and its environment, and between cultures and society as a whole, is closer and more complex than ever in the history of the human species. The mix has changed!

Ludwig von Bertalanffy (Founder of General Systems Theory) (1): Our civilization seems to be suffering a second curse of Babel: Just as the human race builds a tower of knowledge that reaches to the heavens, we have been stricken by a malady in which we find ourselves attempting to communicate with each other in countless tongues of scientific specialization. The only goal of science appears to be analytical, (i.e., the splitting up of reality into ever smaller units and the isolation of individual causal trains)… We may state that this scheme of one-way causality has proven to be insufficient….. in the last resort, we must think in terms of systems of elements in mutual interaction...

Alvin Toffler (Order Out of Chaos), (Future shock) (1): One of the most highly developed skills in contemporary western civilization is dissection, the split up of problems into the smallest possible components. We are good at it. So good, we often forget to put the pieces back together again.

But now it’s our turn, our Turn of the Century, and the state of the world is the canvas of our story. Does humanity have the will and motivation to change the mix?, or will we have to pay a much steeper price in order to earn the twenty second century? Is the fate of the world a consequence of global warming or is there a broader global warning about an even more treacherous set of dominos that humanity has assembled?

Faced with the undeniable truth of hindsight, are we ready for change? Is the mass will strong and focused enough to stand against the status quo and its powerbrokers? Can we maintain the momentum necessary for change? Maybe only our future can make us see that global war- ring is far more eminent than global warming-the clash of civilizations. Maybe regime change is a greater threat than climate change…but with the same underlying causality. Learn the power of Sisu! Can cultural change emanate from technology change (TV, Internet, airplanes, satellites)? Are oligarctels (oligarchy, oligopoly, cartel, government and private monopoly combinations) destructive to free markets? Is the power of the invisible hand (competition, consumerism) being usurped by the invisible handshake of the market powerbrokers? Learn the dynamics of WE∞ (World- Water, Wellness, Energy, Ecology, Economics) strategies, WE to the power of infinity.

The cold war between communism and capitalism has transformed into a struggle of the free market’s invisible hand against the invisible handshake between global enterprise and governments. Economic, social, and environmental chaos has revealed itself through: suicide terror; genocide; human trafficking; water shortage and famine; floods; energy crises; pandemic threat; economic ultra recession; and war. Is it possible that the human race needs a mid-course correction?

The first century our arrow of time will take us is San Francisco in the year 2085, over seventy something years from or story’s base year.

(1) See bibliography

Chapter 1

The Year 2085

I don’t understand why Great-Grandma Alyson wants to see me, her nine year old great-granddaughter. She’s almost 110 years old, and Mom says Granny wants to see me before she dies. I’ve never been close to death before. I don’t want to act sad or scared, but I am!."

Aly sat in the hall outside her great-grandmother’s bedroom with an aching feeling in the pit of her stomach. Now young Aly had a bright light in her green eyes that twinkled with intelligence magnifying her small nose, thin chin, pale complexion, and brown hair. She wore fashionable retro slacks and blouse (retro to the 2050’s). Aly was a prodigy from a long line of scientists and mathematicians, four generations of like mindsets: Great-Granny Alyson, Granny April, Aly’s mom, Alicia, and Aly, the budding youth of the family. Although a centurion and on her deathbed, it was clear who the matriarch of the family was.

Granny Alyson’s home, a Victorian on the ridge of Pacific Heights, overlooked the Marina district of northeast San Francisco and had a full view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, and Alcatraz. Even in 2085, Granny liked the early twentieth century look. How the house was run, well that was something else, again. It was fully computerized, with all TV and computer screens replaced by wireless virtual holograms. All food goods were ordered and delivered as instructed by Jeeves, the house computer presence and virtual caretaker. Homes in 2085 had nanotechnology based surfaces, sensing the status of the entire household. DNA was protected by a localized security and privacy system. The big change, however, was the bathroom which was transformed into a wellness center, which, besides having heat and physical therapy assists, monitored the biological and chemical wellness of the inhabitants, pro- viding input to their organic diet and supplement regimen as well as a direct feed to their health care specialist and medical doctor’s database. Very personalized and very secure.

Yet in the same house, all furniture, curtains, dishes, and silverware were custom made as early 1900’s. Yes, they were styled for the turn of the twentieth century, but e-tagged and inventoried for robotic ser- vices. Everything made was e-tagged.

But life and family was still about people: joy, sadness, hopes, disappointments, the stress of living . . . and of death.

Grandma April came out of the bedroom. Aly, Grandma Alyson wants to see you and your mom now.

A feeling of foreboding, and gut-wrenching anguish was in the pit of her stomach. Aly had been sheltered and coveted as a child prodigy, but life still had a way of putting reality right in her face.

Aly and her mom got up and walked into Granny’s room. As Aly entered, she could see her grandmother’s slight body propped up with pillows. Granny had a Rejuvenator (RJV) attached with a series of feeds going into her arm and chest. She’d had this small wireless health man- ager attached to her for over fifteen years. It was wireless, except for the liquid supplemental nutrition system and the electro-cardio shock- pack.

Come here, my dear. Let Granny Alyson get a closer look at you. Mom gently prodded Aly forward. The three generations surrounded her bedside. Granny could see Aly’s anguish.

Oh, no, no, my darling, you’re looking at one of the lucky ones. I’ve lived over one hundred years. I’ve learned, I’ve loved, and some say I have contributed. And look, you’re so bright and pretty, ready to make your way in this exciting world.

I’ve had my chance. Be happy for me! I had to see you because, even after I’m gone, you can help me.

Oh Granny, what can I do? I’m nine years old. And you’ve done so much!

Granny Alyson reflected, as her mind drifted to the early twenty-first century, where she was suddenly at a state dinner in New York City:

Harry, look out!

Alyson was thrust backwards from her banquet table as a crush of agents and police ran toward the President. Amongst the screaming and the gunfire, she heard the pounding footsteps of two people thundering across the tables and leaping towards the President and Prime Minister. A Middle Eastern man wearing a suicide vest grabbed the President by the throat.

Granny! Granny! Aly was startled as she saw her great-grand- mother drift away and slowly return to the present. Alyson’s eyes re- engaged with her great-granddaughter.

Oh dear, I drifted. My sweetheart, don’t fret. Your mom and grandma know my story and they’ll be here for you.

Granny Alyson reached for her single literary work, the hard cover book, The Turn of the Century. She pulled out two yellowing envelopes pressed inside it.

You see, all literature doesn’t need to be in a hand-pod. These fabricated paper, hardcover bound books have a higher purpose.

Granny, can I open the letters now?

My dear young Aly, it’s too soon. Your mother will hold these letters for you. You need to understand my wishes as a young woman, not as a child. Please trust me. I wanted you to hear from me directly, not just read a piece of paper in a distant future, twenty years from now. I’m so grateful that I could speak to you. You need to complete a mission for me early in the next century. Now don’t you worry. I know that if you’re patient, determined, and sensitive, you’ll be ready.

When Aly looked into her granny’s eyes, she could feel her strength, with over a century of willpower, seemingly encapsulating Aly’s brief nine years of existence.

"Aly, you’ll be fine, but always remember, the secret is honesty to your world and yourself. In your face and within your heart, people should see honesty. Be all that and seize the power of positive action. See the window of opportunity and always see the glass as half full, and be wary of the empty half.

Aly wept, What do I really need to learn?

In one word, Granny exclaimed, "SISU (pronounced sea-sue). That is the Finnish word for perseverance in a world of powerful neigh- bors. Perseverance as hard-bitten as the ice cold and as tough as nails, gained from millenniums of experience, attitude, and being surrounded by those of great power and strength. When problems seem too complex, people will deny they exist or search for blame. There are times when you’ll need to be strong: when you’ll need to harness mass will to over- come the power of resistance to change! That will be your moment! And your moment could have even greater significance than mine… much greater.

"Yes Granny, I’ll be strong, but if I only had your...

Granny peered into a corner of the room. Her eyes glistened. Oh my dear, you know, but you don’t know. Some things just must wait for their own time and place. You need the experience of change to under- stand, to know, to grow. When it is all thrust on you . . . well . . . but you don’t have to fret about this. It’s all explained in the letters here, and your mother knows. Aly, you are the future. You see, you can help me in the right place at the right time.

Aly’s eyes flooded as she hugged her Granny, I promise I’ll be there for you.

They embraced as Alyson’s mind shifted to over seventy years ago

Chapter 2

The Discovery

The South Bay Linear Accelerator (SBLA) Lab – Palo Alto California particle detector technology component.

Illustration of the scale of an accelerator/collider particle detector

The Stage

Researchers from multiple northern California labs shared the two- mile long South Bay Linear Accelerator (SBLA) site. An accelerator uses magnets and thermodynamic force to break down particles for quantum science research, necessary to understand the origins and makeup of everything. To get a feel for its power and complexity, its linear accelerator was about 1.6 kilometers (km) long, its one hundred foot spectrometers weighed 500 tons. Accelerators drove beams of electrons equaling thirty billion volts, and its magnets were required to operate at minus 250 degrees Celsius. The SBLA site is considered small compared to the MERLIN site in Illinois, or the Centre de Europeen Science Quantum (CESQ) in Switzerland.

The problem of bashing beams of electrons into each other was that in order to create more force, more particle breakdown, you needed to build more powerful accelerators, rings, detectors, etc. In 2009, the Centre Europeen de Recherche- Nuclaire (CERN) finished building the most powerful ring accelerator/collider in the world, at a cost of three billion dollars. The Large Hadron Collider had a 16.8 mile underground ring and seven times the energy of Fermi labs in Illinois. However, these are like the steam locomotives of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. More power required more size. The challenges of gaining control over matter and energy demanded more machines of size and power, driven in part by rising world consumption of power while seemingly diminishing oil reserves begged for new solutions.

By 2009, there were over three quarters of a billion automobiles on

the planet, and growing, compared to less than 300 million in the early

1970’s. This is what’s called growing demand, expected to reach 1.2 billion vehicles by 2020. This, plus the economic rise of China and the Asian region, along with the Middle East unrest, fed a growing fire for change.

Berkeley, California

Berkeley Quantum (Science) National Labs (BQNL), whose scientists were focused on elementary particle research, was on a 150 acre plot, a hill away from the United California University (UCU) Berkeley Campus. This was a splinter organization from the Lorenzo Berkeley National Center (LBNC), which had over 2,500 workers and was affiliated with UCU Berkeley.

April 22 Particle Research Unit,

Physics Division, 10:00 a.m.

BQNL was one of the sixty or seventy research centers around the world that had significant particle accelerator-colliders, and part of a physics research facility that was chasing the origins of the universe. This type of research required massive funding, mostly in the U.S.A. by the Department of Energy (D.O.E.), and not without reason.

(Author’s note: Appendix II and III are available if you want to reference some quantum physics terminology and our science faction ideas, used infrequently in the story, but it is the kind of twenty-first century lingo that will become as commonplace as the atom was in the science language of the twentieth century.)

Our young Great Granny

Alyson Higgs (yes, our great Granny, but over seventy years earlier), prodigy quantum experimental senior scientist, had a small research team:

Steven Hawkener, computer scientist and provider of conscience and occasional great particle physic ideas;

Ivan Mosser, colleague, experimental physicist, and super geek; Andrea Feyn, young thermodynamic-focused experimental scientist, post doctoral, but always the skeptic; and Colin Hader, a very experienced experimentalist, documenter, and coordinator of inter-lab efforts. Under department head direction and collaboration, Colin coordinated with places like: South Bay Linear Accelerator (SBLA), across the bay and down the road in Silicon Valley (where the BQNL team had just finished a test); Midwest Electromagnetic Research and Linear Intelligence Nuclear center (M.e.r.l.i.n.Center) in Illinois; Upton Quantum Labs (UQL), in New York; Centre Europeen de le Science Quantum (CESQ) in Geneva, Switzerland; and many others. Colin was the communicator, the talker if you will, among introverted nerds (or should we say, focused scientists).

Alyson’s boss, Tom Newel, senior scientist and department head, had a core of senior scientists focused on the theoretical work, whether or not produced in their university. His labs generally had lead senior scientists all the way down to Ph.D. grad students. Alyson’s position in this team was advanced for her age, primarily because she made her- self visible as an undergraduate student. Tom had been mentoring her for over ten years. So he, though all her publications were considered collaborative, promoted her to senior experimental scientist and team leader, of which her lab was one of several.

Alyson was also that quantum sharp looking woman (in her case Berkeley-sharp), that even with a headband, was meticulously pret- ty and intelligent. She was in her early thirties, with medium height, brown hair, and green eyes, dressed so I can deny and hide my physical beauty, even behind glasses. That inherited bright light beamed from her eyes. She also adopted her parents’ zest for science and belief in family. Nonetheless, Alyson didn’t get out much; she was too focused on her research and her work. It was like she’d had a little birdie on her shoulder most of her life asking what she had done for the world lately. At least that was her excuse. Alyson had a great need for socialization, an occupational hazard.

Okay team, instructed Alyson, let’s get together and decide how we are doing on the lab list of priorities and if we can make progress and talk Tom into some freewheeling... Everyone pulled their chairs to the center table of their fifty-foot by fifty-foot workspace (including their five, ten+ by ten+ foot cubicles).

The team was working with other labs in BQNL. SBLA and the French were testing the use of plasma, or iodized helium, as a lower cost/high voltage accelerator by interacting with a high energy laser beam.

I’ve isolated the particle change from Merlin’s (Midwest Electromagnetic Research and Linear Intelligence Nuclear lab) test, and correlated it to SBLA’s results, remarked Steven. But, I think that idea of organizing Quark/anti-quark pairs and then changing wave frequency in plasma is a potential project for photon light manipulation. I think ‘Boss Tom’ will be very pleased with a new level of collaborative work. Where would we be without our supercomputer cluster?

Steven was very practical and worried a lot that his efforts showed some visible tangible results. His conscience dictated that his paycheck had some payback. This was a definite formula for guilt. It was like his mother was standing over his shoulder, assessing how he was behaving, and contributing maternal guilt and fear as the cornerstone for male ethics and behavior. That had probably prevented more wars than any number of international treaties.

Still thinking about creating that high energy electron field by laser, eh, Steven? needled Andrea.

She also couldn’t help but feel those parental pressures and motivation. If you can’t get guilt from the one you love, get guilt from the one you’re with. That’s a Jewish person’s anthem of moral certitude. Or maybe it was a mother’s anthem. It was the gene that kept the hunter from becoming a rogue killer. Hitler just needed some gene therapy or to spend more time with his mother. Or maybe his mother needed the therapy. On that thought, maybe Hitler needed less time with his mother.

All of that needs to be part of the priority list, lamented Steven. We don’t do anything unless it’s cleared by the committee. Isn’t that right, team? Slaves to the funding gods, right?

I think quantum computing is great, but we should work with the Almaden labs down the bay. IBM® is way into particle-based computing. Colin did one heck of a job collaborating. His role was critical in the science lab. Many science and computer types should belong to Introverts Anonymous. Maybe this was the evolution from book- worms in the late 20th century. Someone with verbal skills and personality had to get this crowd together. Why not Colin?

Everyone grunted because the baseline work was so much like work,compared to speculation on the cosmos and the origin of the universe.

Okay, I’ll have a good terabyte of reduced data sample from today’s test in one and a half (1½) days from the South Bay Linear Accelerator (SBLA), said Andrea.

Steven added, And I‘ll have the parsing algorithm ready. We are scheduled to get on LL’s (Lorenzo Labs) super computer cluster by tomorrow and get SBLA to give us new Accelerator/Collider samples from our tests. I’ll have them transmit it over the I2 (Internet two (2)) bridge. Hey, did you hear SBLA transmitted the equivalent of four hours of DVD video 6000 miles in less than a minute? Now that’s fast. Good- bye video stores!

That was the kind of nerd-talk that came from the digital particle bridge builders of the early twenty-first century. Who would have thought that they would be the focal point of danger and suspense?

Andrea sighed and ran her fingers through her hair like she was massaging her brain, her personal quirk. It was like her hair was a bunch of antennas seeking anxiety provoking ideas.

Did you ever wonder if all this, all these billions spent in our field, were a waste of time and money? That we are chasing rainbows to no avail? What if we are discovering all kinds of particle formations, yet there is no practical result simply because the challenge is greater than our technology in this space and time? Are we just ahead of our time? And we sit here working on the glories of science while in Africa and Asia, women walk six hours a day just to get clean water for their families. Did you know the lifespan in Nigeria is 46.7 years compared to eighty-one in Japan, whose comparable 128 million population is twice Nigeria’s on a per kilometer basis? And I read how a mother and her seven-year-old son were kidnapped in Thailand and sent into the human trafficking underworld to appear in prostitution and begging gangs in the modern cities of the Pacific, Europe, and the U.S.A. It’s even happening in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, in the Middle East and around the world, the Jihadists are planning the destruction of western civilization. While all that’s going on, corporate giants are doing everything they can, including bribing government officials (politely called lobbying) to prevent change. Wall street’s computerization seems to have shifted emphasis from investing to speculating, hedging, and modeling based on volatility instead of true innovation and company quality. How can this be helped by particle research?

Now that comment got Alyson started. Now listen, I don’t think anyone, not even you, Andrea, believe that, Alyson said with a stern smile. No, I’m convinced we’re here for a greater purpose. We’re on the forefront, on the bleeding edge, because people believe that we should pursue the path of pure science intelligently and synergistically work together with our colleagues all over the world. Then like Einstein, Planck, or Heisenberg, we will intersect with the truth, a positive force that will better mankind in a way that will matter. The key is focus and positive, collaborative thinking, like a mind meld that will create some- thing or discover something that we didn’t even know we were looking for.

Andrea responded with an honest smirk and a swirling motion of her hair as she twisted her neck towards Alyson. Why Alyson, you’ve spoken with Einsteinium simplicity and Martin Luther King charisma. I’m so charged that I want to work twenty-four/seven. I really mean it! And maybe if we collaborate more, fewer of our geniuses will commit suicide.

Everyone laughed, then slithered (like digital worms) back to their cubicles and logged into their PCs. You see, all the kids mentally chained to their video game PC’s, X-boxes, and PlayStations, were just training for a twenty-first century world of work… or not.

Alyson thought to herself, well, we all get squishy about our new technology, but really, these efforts, when compared to the quantum uni- verse, are still in the dark ages. But think, one hundred years ago, these kinds of things were just being conceived as thought experiments and math calculations on a blackboard. So we must be making progress. If only the world would let us get ahead of its problems.

She didn’t get out much, but she felt passionately. Maybe she’d get her chance at directing the passion towards a humanoid someday.

Alyson, in a science moment, sat staring at a picture of Woody Allen in the corner of the room with the quote, Eighty percent of success is showing up. Alyson smiled to herself. Yeah, showing up and working your butt off. Often the tired brain felt like the tired butt, maybe because you were sitting on it… your butt, that is.

The Arrival

In a brief instant, the corner of the room began to look out of focus. Alyson shook her head like she was feeling dizzy. Then a wavelike image of reds, yellows, blues, and greens appeared in a pulsating hologram. It brightened.

Steven, what’s going on? He looked up towards this humming sound, dropped his mouth, and gasped.

Andrea turned toward the entity. What the heck?

Okay, who’s the wise guy? Colin knew that techies in the labs

played games all the time.

The light dimmed in this gaseous elliptical image, except for a hot point, like an eye. It seemed to shift back and forth in the wave pattern as it focused on the people in the room, one at a time. It moved deliberately and with intelligence, almost breathing, as it surveyed its hosts.

Ivan, the scientist, was drawn to its dance of colors. The hologram was clearly a structured intelligent probe and very visual. The ability to see its inner light waves and labyrinth of activity made him a little too comfortable.

Andréa, with her hair bristling in some kind of electroshock state,said, Careful Ivan, you don’t know what you’re dealing with.

He put out his hand as if he were going to touch its outer image.

ZZZZZarch! He was shocked backward as soon as he penetrated the hologram.

From the floor where he landed, he said, I see it is smart enough to have a defense system. It definitely doesn’t want to be touched. Ivan looked right at the probe. Well sorry, I didn’t realize you were so sensitive.

Although potent, it gave him just enough of a jolt to put him in his place, albeit on the floor. But it didn’t really seem threatening, it just made its point.

Seriously, this isn’t a joke, demanded Alyson. Did one of the labs create this phenomenon? KEEP AWAY FROM IT!

Then out of this electromagnetic cloud, an ARC of electricity connected to a nearby socket, and the cylinder’s light and colors intensified. It was like the entity plugged itself in and was recharging. Out of the cylinder stepped a hologram of a mixed racial man in his thirties. He approached each observer, as if he was looking at them individually, and then returned to the center of the room.

In a clear voice, and clearly a human voice with a French accent, it said, "Hello. My name is Jacque Albert. Please don’t be concerned. We will not harm you. Please record this photon probe and you will be able to retrieve a message from the recorded image. We are here from a science lab from almost 100 years in your future due to matters of great importance to you, and are not a threat. You’re time and space is where the threat is. This is the time when you reconcile the conflicting forces that cross your borders or you and our centuries will suffer. We know, we have!"

Steven ran to the closet and pulled up a tripod and digital camera, and began recording. At least someone will believe us, he asserted.

The hologram seems to have the equivalent of typed characters in- side its image, Andrea noticed! See the checkered dark rectangle inside the white center between the light waves? I think it’s the written word.

You’re right, Ivan said as he began to consider how to get at that image.

After about five minutes, the entity’s pulsating image hologram eliminated the ARC to the electrical outlet and moved back to the corner, and then it appeared to move through the wall and outside the building. Through the window, they saw it accelerate and disappear into what appeared to be a wedge, a seam in the air, like a gateway. They all looked at each other with mouths wide open, in complete disbelief.

Did we just get visited? Did we witness a space portal exit? Steve was a little shaken, or was it an adrenalin rush?

I’ll call around and see who's the wise guy, remarked Colin.

Yeah, sounds like one of the SBLA guys, or those jokers in the com- puter science lab. The computer geeks are always sending entropy to people’s desktops. Pure cognitive dissonance! They think it’s funny.

Andrea was sure it was a fake, but her hands were raking her hair like a pitchfork through hay looking for a diamond.

Steven winced, and then a light bulb appeared in his mind. Well, let’s see what we recorded. He uploaded the digital camera image to the BQNL lab computer server, and then played it back.

Yes, the image is there. Read it and weep, or hoorah. What the heck is this evidence of? remarked Steven. Whatever he had seen was real, but how to react was not clear to anyone, except the easy decision to wait until tomorrow.

Let’s see if I can clean up the hologram images.

Steven invoked a digital pattern matching program from his library. The screen pulsed out the rainbow of quark reduced colors that seemed to be transforming in light waves. He saw this hazy, black, scroll-like image, so he isolated it and temporarily deleted the surrounding activity, like a digital eraser on a paint program. He zoomed out the image and invoked the language/character translation program in several languages. Then, almost like it was intended, Jacque’s hologram image reappeared:

"Good day. We’re going to provide you with about two pages of information. Until you’ve absorbed it, we’d advise you to classify it and don’t share it with anyone. We’re sure you’re in some state of disbelief, so we’ll prove what we’re telling you. Stay with us.

"Based on data records we have, we sent this photon probe to thirteen known research locations, using GPS locational positioning data, and hoping that the academia/scientists of your time will understand the issues you are about to become part of.

"We’ve transmitted thirteen probes from CMRQ (Centre de le Monde Recherche, Quantum) Geneva, Switzerland, from our time, in the early twenty second century. Don’t try to second guess us. We picked actual labs or individuals for good reasons. Yes, we have advanced knowledge. We know you’re doubtful, but remember, we’ll prove it. Our probe will return in about three and a half days to our space-time (round trip is seven days), hopefully with pictures. Our probe has a resident photon wave camera. This message is a blind digital missive in that we can’t imagine whether anyone will see it. After all, we targeted your lab in your space-time from seventy-five billion miles away. Remember, our planet is traveling in a constantly expanding universe in a specific (albeit complex) trajectory. We only mean well and this is from a lab where only a few people know of this experiment.

"We needed to do something to get your attention and see if any- one received this message. Tomorrow, April twenty-forth, the Dow will climb by 197.68 points. In Dubai, a car will kill a person named Mohamed Agrium at 2:00 p.m. in an unfortunate accident. (Please do not interfere, and later we’ll prove we didn’t have him killed.) Former Prime Minister Blair informed the House of Commons that

‘Representatives of African Nations should represent all factions or future peace won’t be inevitable.’ (Yes, we can prove that was an ad lib and not fed to him). The temperature in Moscow at 1:30 a.m. Moscow time will be 2.3217 degrees Celsius, exactly. (You’ll have to check with Moscow’s central weather station to be accurate.) China’s main Beijing hospital, Peoples General, will deliver twenty-four babies, twelve boys, and twelve girls, one mother will die in childbirth, and one baby will have a skin disorder on their left arm that wasn’t visible in sonograms. We know the baby’s name is Su Kim. This is verifiable, and we assure you this isn’t a hoax.

"We are asking you to put a unique message into the personals of The British Times, including the heading, Century22 CMRQ, acknowledgement date and time (yours) and your names and e-mail addresses, and the message: ‘Yes, we hear you.’ This isn’t an announcement to anyone in your space-time except the participating laboratories. It should appear benign to the general public. We in- tend to, however, ask you to present some postulates to the United Nations in a short while.

Do not elaborate on the reasons for this interaction. But be- ware…(he pauses) … these events in history are about to pull you into a chain reaction that can change your and our world. Do not disclose anything about this visitation. Also pick a place in your lab and find its exact Global Positioning System (GPS) position and give us the GPS coordinates. Yes, the same GPS used in car navigation. Don’t worry, the photon probe isn’t dangerous and doesn’t generate much heat. In fact, it is almost cool. It does, however, replenish itself through finding an electrical source, so stay clear of outlets and light bulbs. You are in moment one of a new time-space era and we don’t know where our journey will take us. Please trust us. We’re only giving you limited input.

"After you verify our information (Yes, archives were preserved, particularly newspaper, phone book, and historical archives), even if you are skeptical, and if you’re human you must be, do not share this with anyone unless they are from another lab and they give you the code word, Century22. Establish a communication plan, a security plan, and a collaboration team. We will verify all major media and search all police, Interpol, FBI, and CIA records of your decade, so please don’t share this with law enforcement, yet. Make a vow of silence between your labs.

"If the silence requirement is ignored, all communication will cease. We cannot change history in your time. We will be asking you to present a proclamation to the United Nations. We don’t understand the impact (e.g. auto infanticide!) of this gateway between our parallel dimensions. This is a pioneering science and our probe is the Santa Maria or the Pinta of the Columbus voyages. Another probe will return to you in about two days.

"Recognize that we chose you as the recipients of this photon probe because we trusted your methods and the judgment of you, as scientists and individuals. Remember, we have records and picked you out of trust and actual historical knowledge. Keep that trust!

Yes, we’ll launch another probe, even before receiving this re- turn probe. We can only communicate and record for about ten minutes with one probe in a space up to ten by ten, by ten meters. Think about the ramifications and the risks we are taking. We understand the difficulties of silence. They don’t compare to the difficulties you’ll encounter with disclosure. We anticipate only positive outcomes from this interaction…. but beware.. (he pauses)…these events of history are about to pull you into a chain reaction that can change the world.

Sincerely,

JACQUE E Albert, CMRQ senior scientist, Philippe Hudan, Christina Bell, Thomas Jardome, and Gabriella Botzman."

Alyson said, Holy Mackerel! Her mind was thrashing, but she did her best to look totally in control. But Holy Mackerel said it all for her.

Steven exclaimed, Holy Halibut, as he was caught between disbelief and awe.

Ivan’s eyes were like an eclipse, but with black moons. He was speechless.

Andréa said, No, I’d say Holy Aquarium. Her hair was almost standing on end. This is a fine kettle of fish.

Colin said, We have to find out if anyone else got this. He was already thinking about the twelve other labs.

How could this probe know all those disparate facts about tomorrow? Alyson conjectured. If this is a parlor trick, I want to know the magician. If this is a worldwide clandestine hoax or scheme to create fear or steal something, they’ve gone a long way. Steven, record the images with a DVD burner and delete the file. Do it now!

Even if it is a trick, what harm, outside of feeling foolish for a long time, can looking into this bring? What do we have to lose or risk at this point? Ivan questioned. He loved chasing rainbows. And why not, he was a Ph.D.

I’ll tell you what. If it is real, we are in a world of trouble. Think of the implications. Alyson was just starting to realize what could hap- pen. They could send formulas, like a cure for cancer. How could this be real? Feelings? Terror, with a little bit of hope. Hope for glory.

What? We are at the center of the universe of change. If this proves out to be... Colin was thinking as his pupils were expanding, let’s not even speculate. You’re right, Ivan. If we play by the rules, we risk nothing except embarrassment.

Alyson concurred. So much is galloping through my mind. Why us? Why now?

On that comment, almost immediately, everyone thought of publication. Imagine, probably thirteen labs had three thoughts:

1. This is huge, beyond any announcement of any proof ever done. Not only proof of time travel, but access to future knowledge. Was the potential trumping of their knowledge good or bad for scientists?

2. If someone is going to break the secret, who will be first? On the other hand, without verification, you could look very foolish. But we should be prepared to publish. Why didn’t they tell us who the other labs were? Who will claim the discovery?

3. This is probably a hoax. It’s refuting some of thermodynamic law! Can irreversibility co-exist with true time travel? Not like Einstein’s acceleration at light speed and then return to the future, but true time travel! How could you perpetrate such a scam? Why would someone perpetuate such a large scale inter- national hoax?

We were in the right place, the right space, the right time, and the right job. Pinch yourself. I’m actually still in disbelief. Ivan was in a state of counter-intuitive belief, but he loved it. Still, he was concerned with protecting himself from looking foolish. Don’t publish too early. That was a strong motivator, at least for a while, to not jump to conclusions. That’s science.

Well, I’m prepared for an acceptance of counter-intuitive beliefs (ACB), Steven contemplated. "People expect everything to be ABC, when ACB may be the reality. Hey think about it, irreversibility