Norma Jeane's Wishes in Time: (A Four Part Adventure)

By Stuart P. Coates

In the year 2040, the United States no longer exists. Instead, it's a province of the former Soviet Union, which has been restored to its past glory. And each newborn child is assigned a Designation Number instead of a name.
Now, forty years later, a man known only as 77241 escapes into the past in an effort to discover where the world went wrong. When 77241 comes upon footage of Norma Jeane Baker, known throughout the world as Marilyn Monroe, he becomes haunted by her face, so much so that he seeks out her gravesite and begins speaking to her hologram.
As oxygen bombs fall upon the former United States in a final act of destruction, 77241 escapes in a time bubble traveling back to June 1960. Once there, he seeks out Norma Jeane at a movie set. Through her, he attempts to save John F. Kennedy from his all-too-early demise hoping to alter enough of the past to change the world's future destruction.
Join 77241 and Norma Jeane as they interact with a cast of historical characters, including Kennedy, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, as they seek to change the course of history in Norma Jeane's Wishes in Time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 8, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595611348

Stuart P. Coates

Stuart P. Coates is a sci-fi writer who grew up in a small town and was a longtime resident of Ottawa, Ontario. He enjoys reading about world history and time travel. He is the author of Norma Jeane’s Wishes in Time, Marilyn’s Mindset, Whispers Across Time, and Earth Grid Down.

Book preview

Prologue

A famous, very fine lady once stated about life: It’s all make-believe, isn’t it? Her name was Marilyn Monroe.

This novel has been written by me to preserve her memory in the best way I know how – through what is possible with my own limited imagination, while combining it with Miss Monroe as my never-ending inspiration.

What you are about to read is fiction. The actual events in this story, although involving real people, never occurred ... at least, not yet.

Of all the many biographies and documentaries that have been written about Marilyn Monroe, much discussion has focused on her dual personality. Much of what has been written about the diversity of the two personalities has always seemed to have had a negative, highly critical approach, ranging from a very confused individual to someone with an extreme bipolar disorder.

There has also been very little written about Miss Monroe in a Science Fiction story form. This is my attempt to correct both of the above.

A while back, I made an unsuccessful attempt at writing a Science Fiction Short Story. The attempt was quite depressing and had a very negative bent to it. However, the overall idea was a good one, so I stuck with the idea, like a little bulldog and refused to let it go. I knew this was a good story I just had to revise it a bit and put a lighter touch of humor in it. I think I’ve succeeded, but you the readers will pass judgment on that assertion.

In 1956, Norma Jeane Baker legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. Several biographies and documentaries about her seem to suggest that she inevitably lost contact with the Norma Jeane Baker part of her personality. Using that as a starting point, I have written the following novel, in four parts (or sections) called Wishes. Each successive Wish builds upon the previous Wish, like a movie sequel. In each of the four sections, Norma Jeane discovers something lacking in her life and, ultimately, she Wishes for fulfillment in whatever she discovers is missing in her life.

The story is filled with comic-like situations, but there are some very serious moments and some very human issues that are addressed.

This is a story of her two personalities – Marilyn rediscovering her lost Norma Jeane side, again told from the Science Fiction approach in a time-travel story.

The actual science behind the story, however – all the discussion of Black Holes and the actual places and events visited are very real. The Science of time-travel of the story is all based upon Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Cosmological Black Hole Theory from Astrophysics.

Anyone’s imagination can always exceed Science, I, therefore, ignored these facts. I hate being told what I can and cannot do!

I have also gone to great lengths to supply you with the actual dates in history and where these events took place throughout all four parts to the novel.

I have tried to be factually accurate regarding what was going on in Norma Jeane’s/Marilyn’s life at the time when and where her character joins this story on June 5, 1960 in the Nevada Desert while the filming of the Misfits was occurring.

Part One:

Norma Jeane’s First Wish

 (Reunification)

Chapter 1

Sunday, December 24, 2079, Los Angeles, on the Island State of California, Former United States of America.

In the year 2039, the country of the United States of America collapsed in upon itself from a faltering economy. Far worse than the Black Tuesday of the Stock Market Crash of October 29, 1929, the first economic trigger which caused the Great Depression of the 1930s, people lost more than their jobs and means of supporting themselves, they lost their own personal freedom. The re-emerging Soviet Union seized control in early 2040. As a measure of control and tracking, all new-born children of the Former United States of America were assigned Designation Numbers, instead of names. Microchips were implanted under the skin in their wrists to act as tracking beacons.

Large computer complexes were exclusively built for tracking purposes, first in Moscow, then London, Sydney, Toronto, Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, and ultimately in every capital city throughout the world.

The Internet allowed rapid mobilization of these smaller networks, governed by Central in Moscow. The System was in place and fully operational in less than a year.

In early 2040, the Former United States rallied in one final, cataclysmic battle to regain its freedom. The Special Forces Unit, known as the Freedom Fighters, was organized in Los Angeles, by Special Agent Jonathan Williamson.

Moscow, now aware of these rebellious activities, quickly extinguished the Freedom Fighters and killed Jonathan Williamson and his wife Heather in an unannounced bombing raid over the city of Los Angeles on April 4, 2040. The uprising had been extinguished forever.

Miraculously, found among the ruins of their obliterated home, was Jonathan and Heather Williamson’s only baby son.

Assigned his Designation Number, 77241, when he was only a few weeks old, almost 40 years earlier, he was taken to an orphanage. He has known nothing more about his family than the Designation Number a family member had generated for him from The System.

He grew to manhood, bitterly resenting The System that had named him by this meaningless Number, while it forever, deliberately, concealed the vital information he needed to learn of his parents. He worked hard with his hands, day after unending day, in the labor camp which was built over the remains of what once was known as Universal Studios.

His soul became as callused as his hands, defying his surroundings, in an Age of Man where names and individualities were kept suppressed, in much the same way someone’s color of skin had once created slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

After years of the administrators of the Los Angeles Hall of Records keeping the details of those long-ago bombing raids well-concealed from him, he started hacking into The System. He managed to partially decrypt the stolen coded files of information – from one life-threatening theft after another, which he had acquired over many years. He now knows the Freedom Fighters’ addresses, but not their names. He has deduced the location of his family’s home by the process of elimination of the dilapidated buildings still remaining after almost four decades.

This weekend, in an attempt to gather more detailed information about his family, he has decided to enter The Desolation Zone, once known as Brentwood, the old neighborhood where he lived as a new-born baby before the cataclysmic bombing raid of April 4, 2040.

Known only by his Designation Number, the orphaned baby, now grown to manhood, attempts to learn who his parents were, this Christmas Eve, 2079, from some old files he has retrieved from a hard drive of a computer located in the remains of the den of their burned out home.

To save his family, to save the future, he must seek the past. He would soon become the very first time traveler.

The man, age 39, searches through the remains of his former home.

Looks like the den. Completely in shambles. There’s the computer. Get this junk out of the way so I can get over there. Floor’s unstable. Better be careful. Whole place looks burned out. No wonder my parents were killed in this house. A miracle I survived. The railing on my crib stopped a beam from crushing me as a baby. Four more inches to the right and I’d have been a goner, too!

He reaches the computer.

Hmm! Just as dead as everything else in this place. No power. Guess that was hoping for too much when I was thinking the batteries would’ve held their charge for almost 40 years.

He starts looking at its condition more closely.

Hard-drives wrecked, too. Wait! There’s something in the disc player. Jammed. I’ll dig it out .... There! ... They used to call these things CD’s, I believe. Ancient stuff! ... What’s that say on it? Pretty beat up! ‘Desig---- Rec --- For 77_41’! ... It’s the record of my being assigned my Designation Number! I’ll take this with me. Maybe, if it’s still playable I’ll learn my parents’ names from it! Take it with me! ... Now ... find my way out of this place.

As he tries to go through the hole he crawled through, it starts to collapse.

"Whoa! Won’t try that again! There had better be another way out of here or this place will become my tomb! ... Climb over the couch ... A-a room ahead ... the kitchen! Musty smelling! There’s the back entrance. It still looks in good shape! ... Jammed! Need something to pry it open. There ... a hole. If I could find something sturdy enough ... Mom’s frying pan! Stick the handle in the hole for leverage. There it is -- on the kitchen table ... over there.

"What’s this? ... An ashtray and half a pack of cigarettes on the table. There are three smoked ones in the ashtray. My parents couldn’t have been smokers, they had to have been born in the first or second decade of this century. Someone born in the late 20th century must have been here with them at the time this house was bombed. I’ll take the pack of cigarettes with me, too. It’s a long shot, but smoking was rare in 2040. Maybe it’s enough of a clue to tell me who was here with them.

Now ... stick the frying pan handle in the hole ... and ... PUSH! ... UNNNHH! ... Door’s ... unnnhhh! ... giving-way! .... A little ... more! ... That did it! .... I’m out of here!

Chapter 2

Alright, Computer, let’s see what you’ve pieced together in my Designation Record.

The computer, using its Each-Word-Capitalized-Voice-Print Communications Intelligence (EWCVPCI) software, begins its analysis of the contents of the battered compact disc and speaks.

File Recovery Only Approximate At Around 50%.

The man replies, 50% is better than nothing, considering that massive Quake in 2068. California was separated from the mainland. With that house burned out the way it was 28 years before that, I’m surprised there was anything left!

File Date: April 2, 2040

Designation Number Assigned To Child Born February 19, 2040: 7_2_1

Father: _ _n_t_ a_ Pe_ _ _ W_ _ _ _a _ s_ _, Date of Birth: Sep_ _6, 2011

Mother (with Maiden _ame): H_ _t_e_ Mor_ _ _ _n W_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ,

Date of Birth: Oct 22, 2015

Go_ _ _ther: _ o_ _a _e_ _e _ _k _ _, Date of Birth: Ju_ _ 0_, 19_6

Sir, If I May, Your Designation Number Is 77241. This Solves The First Line.

"Computer, do you have a microchip loose? I already know my Designation Number! That’s about all I know. I’m more interested in what’s written below it ... my family’s information.

"I’ll do this line by line, by myself, thank you. My father’s middle name may have been Peter. ‘Sep’ must mean September.

"Mother’s .... Maiden Name .... too much missing, but I’ve got her birth date.

"Go_ _ _ther??? Godmo ... Godmother! I had a godmother present that day! Her birth date -- June or possibly July ... She must have been older than my parents, born in 19_6. Probably 1996 or 1986. Her name was ... Darn it! Only mostly the vowels showing! How will I ever figure her name out? Or any of them, for that matter?

"The only other clue I have is that package of cigarettes I brought out of there. My godmother’s birth date goes back far enough, so those cigarettes must’ve been hers.

"Too much information missing.

I’ll take it to my next-door neighbor, 45298. His hobby is restoring these old fashioned discs.

77241 walks across the lawn to his neighbor’s home.

The System addresses him as he crosses the infra-red beams at the front door.

Please Apply Thumb-Print To Access Panel And State Your Designation Number.

77241.

On Friend List To 45298. Access Granted.

45298? It’s me, 77241. I hate The System. Always requesting information from you. Thumb-print IDs, retina and DNA scans! Wish there was a way to change it all.

Ah! Come in, old fellow. Complaining again, as usual. Heard the latest? With all this tension about them dropping bombs on us again after 40 years, trying to change The System, the Westwood Council is thinking of holding elections again. Are you going to run? asked 45298, splicing a wire, not really looking at his visitor.

Like blazes, the first chance I get, replied 77241.

You mean, for a position on the Council?

You know what I meant, he replied, closing the door.

Always trying to escape Los Angeles, aren’t you, 77241? Forget it. Face it – we’re POWs in this city. That atomic-powered, transparent confinement dome they placed 5000 feet over the city stops all aircraft attempting escape. We’re prisoners. Always have been, always will be, said 45298.

I’ll still keep trying, if you don’t mind. I’ll fly out of here one day. I’m still a pretty damned good pilot, even after being locked up in this city for this long. And my Bubble is spherical, not aircraft-shaped. I might be able to slip through, undetected, so ‘can’ all your ‘friendly confidence’ in me ... and I might even take you with me that day, said 77241, looking at an old radio set 45298 had disassembled.

Like that airline ad used to say, ‘Fly the Friendly Skies’ ... Friendly ... There’s almost nine miles of that Electronic-Scrambling Dome over this city to penetrate between us and the outside world, muttered 45298, after almost cutting his finger, as the jack-knife in his hand slipped.

I’ll make it, if that new stealth shielding I’m working on holds out long enough, said 77241, looking at the old-style conventional oven in 45298’s kitchen. 45298 didn’t believe in cooking with a microwave oven. His neighbor had a long-time phobia of the effects of radiation on food and radiation, in general.

Wouldn’t count on it. If the radiation doesn’t get to you first, that Dome’s negative energies will scramble every nerve and impulse in your body WHEN it – and it will – gets through. Don’t bet your life on that shielding, replied 45298. 77241 smiled at his remark, his neighbor was consistent, if nothing else.

77241 said, still smiling at 45298’s remark, That’s just it, I am betting. But, tonight I have a different problem. I was wondering if you could help me retrieve some information on this old disc I found in the ruins of my parents’ home? I think it was once called a CD ... or something like that.

Sure, haven’t seen one of those in years. I can try. Love a challenge. Just leave it on the counter. I’ll get around to it sometime soon. Come in here and take a look at this old Entertainment System I’ve been working on. I think I’ve almost got her running. She’s really a fine old girl, this entertainment system, just needs a little attention and TLC to get her operational again. Great surround-sound system! Better than any hologram system of today, in my opinion, said 45298.

77241 knew enough not to argue with him. He actually admired his friend’s tenacity, simply by responding, You never quit trying to restore those old DVDs, do you.

You have your hobby building that Time Bubble of yours, I have mine. I like restoring these old movies using their original technology of the day. At least mine seems to operate better than yours. You pulled half the laboratory into that Black Hole you’re trying to harness, from what I’ve heard. Any further luck?

Nope. Not really. Frustrating. Could say it has quite an attraction. Lab’s a mess. I’d rather not discuss it. Well, just look at that ancient screen flicker! What did you call that thing again?

A color television set. They used to broadcast transmissions received by these things up until about 40 years ago. They were called ‘channels’, I think. They don’t broadcast anymore, since 2040, but you can still see some of the recordings on VHS tapes and these storage medium DVD discs.

Who’s the blonde? asked 77241, examining the picture on the worn case which had held the DVD. Most of the face of the blonde woman on the cover had worn off over the years of handling the DVD’s shell.

She was Marilyn Monroe. One of the 20th century’s biggest film legends, born right here in this city. She died many years ago. Her remains are in the Westwood Memorial Cemetery, over on Glendon Avenue.

Home town girl makes good, huh? No Designation Number associated with her?

You should take more interest in history, 77241. Not in her lifetime. Mid-twentieth century. They still used names.

She seems to be acting rather foolish, to me.

"That’s what they used to call it, 77241 -- acting! People used to be entertained by these actors. Don’t let those actions on the screen fool you. In real life, she was a pretty bright lady. Even in her time, she knew the world was moving too fast ... and her life started spinning out of control, too. See those sleeping pills she’s mixing into that drink? In real life it was sleeping pills and alcohol that eventually killed her many years later. Life imitating art, but life sometimes doesn’t have a happy ending, like in these movies I’m restoring. This was a comedy called ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’. She was playing the part of a scheming blonde in this one and her scheme started to backfire on her. No audio left on this one. They’ve all seen their better days. I’ll find one where you can hear what she sounded like. Here’s one ... made a few years later.

As I said, life imitating art. Her own life seemed to start going haywire with her soon after the making of this later movie of hers I’m putting in right now ... ‘the Misfits’.

Pills mixed with booze, huh? Deadly combination. If I recall what you told me right, women of her time often got hooked on pills of all kinds. Crazy male doctors, how they treated their female patients. If a woman had a problem, they’d just give her pills. Only, the cure was often worse than the original problem. Mid-twentieth century mayhem!

That’s right, barbaric time in our history.

The television audio started to activate on a section of the DVD ....

Those dents aren’t my fault, you know, said her character Roslyn.

She had a soft voice, said 77241.

45298 replied, She really was quite shy. You know, both she and you have something in common. Neither of you knew much about your families. She never knew her father. Spent a lot of her life trying to track him down. Never was too successful at it. It was rumored that she had located him through a phone call she had made while searching for his whereabouts when she was in her early-teens, though, that was sketchy at best. She knew her mother, but her mother encountered some mental disturbances when Marilyn was only nine years old. Her mother never even remembered her, for the remainder of her life. Marilyn Monroe went by her original name, Norma Jeane Baker at the time. She adopted her mother’s married name of Baker. She changed her name to Marilyn. And the name Monroe -- she adopted her grandmother’s married name when she started acting at Fox Studios, right here in this city, in the late 1940s. Bit of a chameleon, she was. They said she was bipolar: two personalities in one. Very hard to figure out and really get close to. Bit of a dreamer, like you, 77241.

She was luckier than I. Both my parents died when I was a few months old. At least she knew her mother. Changed her name, huh? Crazy people back then, nothing wrong with a name like Norma Jeane Baker. We have no choice today. We’re all just numbers. Too bad they didn’t realize how lucky they all were -- the freedom to choose and do so much with their lives.

Your parents had names, though, didn’t they?

Yes, their generation was the last to use names as we knew them, and our house lay in ruins when those bombs struck it in April of 2040. They were both killed. I was just a few weeks old and had just been given my Designation Number, by a visitor of theirs. Never knew who that visitor was. She was listed on the computer files as my godmother. The record was only partially recovered. I couldn’t retrieve my godmother’s name on it and all records of who my parents were, had been destroyed in the bombing. I have some of my father’s early drawings and calculations he was using to create a Time Machine, but his name never appeared on any of it. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last several years -- his ideas on time travel. Dangerous work. That last experiment with the secret Black Hole I located pulled half the lab equipment into it before I could shut it down. Barely escaped, myself!

Maybe you should try to find a safer hobby like mine.

Are any of us safe anymore? They’re threatening to drop those oxygen bombs any day now. That’ll be IT for all of us, if they do.

The DVD skipped much further ahead in the movie without warning to a horse-roping scene.

Get off me, Roslyn! voiced Gay, played by Clark Gable.

Stop! replied Roslyn, being pushed to the ground.

77241 smiled at the condition of the film he was viewing.

Simpler times. If only we could go back to their time. Change things. I see you’ve still got some work to do on this one, 45298, there’s no color in this one. Too faded and old, huh?

This one was made in 1960. They had color back then, but this one was intentionally shot in Black and White, 77241. Her husband, Arthur Miller, wrote a part for her into one of his short stories and they turned it into a movie. He thought it would have a better dramatic effect if they filmed it in Black and White.

I preferred seeing her in color, myself.

So did she. Maybe, if you ever get that Time Bubble of yours working, you can go back there and tell her yourself. But, if you do, don’t ever fall in love with her. Men were really ‘drawn’ to her, 77241, like a magnet. Didn’t matter how powerful they thought they were. She even drew President John F. Kennedy in like your Black Hole did with your lab. I don’t know which ‘dead star’ has more attraction -- Marilyn Monroe or your Black Hole!

You are a sarcastic son of a bitch. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that, 45298?

Learned it from the best -- palling around with you, 77241.

What are friends for, hmmm? Listen, do you mind if I take this copy of ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ back with me to the lab? I might have better luck than you restoring the audio on it than you have with this crude equipment.

Help yourself. Oh, and while you’re at it, take this one, ‘All About Eve’ -- see what you can do with that one. And this other audio file has got an interview on it Miss Monroe did for a magazine of some sort, so you can match voice patterns, if you manage to get anything on the audio portion of the disc.

Thanks, 45298.

Be seeing you, 77241. Oh, and by the way, aren’t you forgetting something? ... Merry Christmas! Keep those recordings as presents, from me to you.

I guess I have forgotten. Sorry, I didn’t bring you anything. Merry Christmas, 45298.

You’re friendship is gift enough.

Now I really DO feel guilty. Thanks a bunch.

Cheer up, 77241, things will get better for all of us in the New Year. New decade, you know -- 2080! Time for everything to get a fresh start. Leave the nasty 70s behind us.

Hope you’re right, 45298. I hope you’re right.

You’ll see. Cheer up, old fellow.

Chapter 3

Monday, December 25, 2079, at the Westwood Memorial Cemetery in Los Angeles.

"45298 said Marilyn Monroe’s remains were in this cemetery. Don’t know why I’m so curious. Been almost like she’s been haunting me since working with those old DVDs he gave me. The Great Quake of 2068 split this cemetery in two. Been abandoned and unkempt ever since. She must be over there, on the other side. Maybe one of those crypts.

One of the crypt faces looks off-color, dirtier than the others – as if it was touched a lot. I wonder .

As he approaches, he reads ...

"Marilyn Monroe

1926 - 19_2"

"One of the digits on the name plate has been damaged. It’s missing, altogether. The number’s been either worn off or destroyed by the earthquake years ago.

"Brought you some flowers, red roses, hope you’ll like them. Put them in your holder. Probably the first ones you’ve received in 11 years. And I’m probably the first visitor you’ve had here in 11 years, too. Afraid I’m not your greatest, most informed fan. Hardly know anything about you at all, but then you don’t know anything about me either. So I guess that balances things out, do you suppose?

"Well, Merry Christmas, Marilyn Monroe. You’re probably better off than the rest of us living folks. Crazy times, such as they are – another World War looming. Strangely peaceful here. At least the birds in the trees didn’t leave. Cemetery looks abandoned. Probably no one’s been here since the earthquake.

"Huh? Well, would you look at this! She must’ve been well loved. Almost fell over this. Here’s the remains of a bench, looks like it was split in two by the earthquake. Fit the pieces together ... unnnhhh! ... Hope you don’t mind if I try to tidy up your area, Miss Monroe. Learning about you is like fitting together the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. A real Woman of Mystery, you ... unnnh! ... were! ...There! ... ‘In Loving Memory of Marilyn Monroe ... Dedicated on August 5, 1992 ... All About Marilyn ... Marilyn Remembered’.

Hmmm ... August 5, 1992. That must’ve been the date she died. She was born in 1926, died in 1992. Not the longest life, 66 years, but it could’ve been a lot worse. Strange that the last interview of you I have that 45298 gave me was dated 30 years earlier. You probably went into seclusion. Another Greta Garbo, I suppose.

Chapter 4

Sunday, December 31, 2079

Alright, Miss Norma Jeane Baker, Miss Marilyn Monroe or whoever you really were, that about does it from here. Another piece of that ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of you is about to be put in place. Come to life, old girl! Let’s see if this hologram of you works. Twentieth century, meet Twenty-first century. 45298’s surround-sound system could never do this! Bah! 45298’s stuck in the past.

A three-dimensional hologram of Miss Marilyn Monroe animates and illuminates the darkened living room of 77241’s home, as the moon climbs in the sky in the final evening of the year 2079.

Hmm ... Pretty lady. Even got the flesh tones right. Not bad -- in color, just the way you would have wanted it. But, just an image, though. Computer, tie in the audio from the recorded interviews. Let’s give her some personality.

Acknowledged.

The hologram begins to move and speak, using Marilyn’s ordinary voice, using her words from her interviews as the source.

... you know, like sort of a chunk, you know, somehow, I mean, they kind of take, like, pieces out of you and I don’t think they realize it ... you know, their kind of grabbing pieces out of you and gee you know, y-you do want to stay intact. You know, have yourself intact, on two feet ...

Did the best with what I was given, Miss Monroe ... which wasn’t much.

I think that we’re rushing too much nowadays, that’s why people get nervous ...

You should try living in this century, Miss Monroe. We’re a lot more than nervous.

But how dare you get a cold! And I’ve never lost sight of the fact that I am working for one thing and towards one thing and that is -- in giving a performance ...

You and me both. Getting this Bubble to perform for me. And you? What did your performances get you? Performances fueled by pills and alcohol. They kept feeding you that stuff just like you were a machine, not a human being.

I also feel that I’m not in this big, American rush. You gotta get there. And what’s there when you’re there?!?

Nothing, Marilyn. Absolutely nothing -- for any of us! They’ll blow it all up! ... Unless I get this damned Bubble working. But you can’t help anyone now, can you? You’re nothing more than a computer-generated image and I’m just a lonely man, living out some kind of insane fantasy! Computer, shut this damned thing off! It’s time I got serious about working the bugs out of the energy paths in the Time Bubble ... while there’s still time. Stop transmission.

And I don’t want to hold anybody up, and I don’t want to keep people waiting ... But, the main thing is, I do want to be prepared when I get there.

Computer, I said, stop transmission. What did those actors use to say? Quit! No, no ... I think they used the word ... cut!

The hologram becomes motionless, the image frozen, still illuminated in the dark night.

Transmission Terminated By User.

And I want to be prepared, too ... or we’ll all be ... late!

The clock chimes midnight.

Well, welcome to the year 2080, Marilyn Monroe. Happy New Year to you, wherever you are now. Quite probably the Human Race’s last one, if I don’t get the Time Bubble operational. Miss Monroe has long since died and if I don’t get the Bubble working soon, I’m afraid the next time we’ll meet, it will be in person -- in whatever afterlife awaits us all.

It was then and there, in his dimly-lit living room, in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, 2080, when 77241 decided to abandon all hope of ever learning about his family. His only hope was to escape the present, going into the past, in a machine designed to travel through time. Inspired by the computer-generated image, a hologram of a woman who had not lived for over a century, he would attempt the impossible: capture the nearly limitless energies of a Black Hole to fuel a vehicle he had been building for 12 years, through trial and error, from his own father’s initial, original sketches.

Chapter 5

Tuesday, January 16, 2080

For the next two weeks, 77241 worked at a feverish pace, each day that had passed. New Year’s Day, 2080 had become grimmer, as the news broadcast to all Holovision receivers grew more desperate. War, it seemed, was inevitable. Unlike the initial strikes of April 2040, the time when his parents had been alive, the traditional bombing weaponry was now being armed with live nuclear warheads.

One week earlier, as yet another clue that time was getting short, the entire Pacific Ocean had been laid waste by a biologically lethal substance. All marine life in the Pacific was now dead, washing up on the shores of the Island State of California. The odor of rotting fish lay dormant in the very air the people were now breathing.

Weaponry had progressed beyond common sense. The world, as Marilyn Monroe had predicted many years earlier in the audio interview, was indeed now moving too fast ... and its time was quickly running out, far sooner than anyone had predicted, for everyone on its surface. Oxygen, the invisible gas needed to sustain life was now perfected in the same way hydrogen had been perfected in the late twentieth century – as a power source for bombs.

Well, that’s it. It’s this ... or nothing! All I have to do now is ... Oh my God! They’re dropping them! The O-Bombs! It’s just too late.

The eerie red glow on the horizon foretold of the oncoming doom. His world, all that he ever really knew, was coming to an end. This planet’s Third World War would be its last. Civilization had taken thousands of years to develop and flourish.

It would take less than a minute for everything to end. He felt little emotion for anything or anyone except 45298, as he took one last look around the room.

Sorry, 45298, there’s just no time to get you. I only have about a minute left until the radiation gets here. God, I’m so sorry, my one, true friend ... I’m out of time ... So be it.

He strapped the device to his wrist, set it, pressed a large rectangular button atop the device and pointed it at the nearest wall.

At first, only a tiny hole appeared, not on the wall, but through the very fabric of time and dimensional space that we all think we know and assume is there.

The hole rapidly grew in size. On the other side of the opening was a small Black Hole the remnant of a Red Super-Giant star that had collapsed several centuries ago.

The heat and radiation were coming from the final oxygen bomb (The O-Bomb), the major weapon of World War III. He prepared himself for the journey ahead.

The gap in the wall was now large enough for a man to pass through and that is precisely what he did.

Upon activating the entry to this non-dimension, the Time Bubble had formed around him. Its liquefied surfaces began to solidify. A time corridor projection pathway appeared before him. Sights and sounds began to form within the corridor: the images and experiences from days gone and of those yet to be on the transparent interior of the Time Bubble walls. The aircraft lifted off and began its ascent, as the hanger roof retracted and the Time Bubble flew into the night-time sky.

Computer, this is Designation Number 77241 requesting Security Access by Voice Recognition, access pass codes: 77241-02-19-2040 / 01-16-2080, Codename: Phoenix.

Voice Pattern And Pass codes Confirmed. Awaiting Further Instruction Parameters.

Activate cur –

The computer interrupted is sequence of pre-Time Flight instructions to the Bubble’s program.

Proximity Alert! Proximity Alert! Sir, Your Climb Is Too Steep. Altitude – 4700 feet. Now Approaching Los Angeles Electrical-Scrambling Dome Interior. Recommended Action – Level Off Ascent.

Not a chance, Computer. Full power ascent. Vertical Climb. We’re going to punch through! Extend Needle Nosecone!

Sir, That Action Is Highly Inadvisable. You Are No Doubt Being Tracked.

Well, can this Bubble do it?

With Or Without You Living, Sir? Penetration Of Dome Is Marginally Within Power Limits For Time Bubble, Due To Sphere-Shape, But You Will Become A Fugitive From The System. Logic Suggests You --

Computer, those System Controllers are no doubt being bombed out of existence at this very moment! Care to weigh out that little problem in logic, my friend?

I See Your Point ... Punching Through, Sir.

Penetration Of Los Angeles Dome ... 25% ...

Altitude: 17,500 Feet, Climb Velocity Slowing ...

Shielding Effectiveness Dropping ... 90% ...

The electrical charges from the confinement barrier began to dance along the entire surface of the Time Bubble, causing it to glow like an Aurora Borealis.

Penetration Of Los Angeles Dome ... 45% ...

Altitude: 25,300 Feet, Climb Velocity Continues To Slow ...

Shielding Effectiveness Still Dropping ... 70% ...

Penetration Of Los Angeles Dome ... 60% ...

Altitude: 32,000 Feet, Climb Velocity Now Approaching Stall Range ...

Shielding Effectiveness Still Dropping ... 45% ...

Penetration Of Los Angeles Dome ... 84% ...

An alarm now started to sound.

Damn it She’s red-lining! Switching to manual ... landing thrusters transferred to climb ... Won’t have them for re-entry.

Altitude: 43,000 Feet, Climb Velocity At 400 Feet Per Second ... Slowing ...

Shielding Effectiveness Still Dropping ... 25% ... Approaching Minimal Shielding Levels. Recommend –

Computer, Over-ride Safety Protocols.

Acknowledged.

Altitude: 44,000 Feet, Climb Velocity 190 Feet Per Second ... Slowing ...

Altitude: 49,000 Feet, Climb Velocity 80 Feet Per Second ... Slowing ...

Penetration Of Los Angeles Dome ... 98% ...

Shielding Effectiveness Still Dropping ... Now At 8% ... Below Minimal Shielding Levels. Fatal Exposure In 20 Seconds.

Computer, never mind the warnings.

Altitude: 49,600 Feet ... 49,700 Feet ... 49,900 Feet ...

Lethal Exposure In 12 Seconds ... 11 ... 10 ... 9 ...

Altitude 50,070 Feet. Dome Penetration Successfully Achieved.

I’m – I’m out of it! ... I’ve escaped Los Angeles! ... I’m a free man!

Penetration Of Dome Complete. Shield Effectiveness Now At 44% And Rising ... 72% ... 92% ... Full Shielding Restored.

Whew! I feel almost sick. And the tougher part is still ahead.

Sir, You Have Been Successful At Penetrating Los Angeles Dome. Sir, That Was Close.

Computer, are your components British? You have a gift for understatement. Activate full current time display.

Acknowledged.

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:40:42.1

Activate Time Period Scan, Audio Only. Pattern For Time Reference: Random, Exclusive, Any.

Acceleration Sequence Activating. Time Reference By Audio Only. Pattern Settings Accepted.

Prepare to Execute Time Travel Program Phoenix Omega-1, program termination upon Time Travel Deceleration Completion.

Parameters Accepted. Awaiting Final Instructions Before Program Execution.

Execute Time Travel Portion upon attaining Geosynchronous orbit. Final Instructions Complete. Execute Phoenix Omega-1 Program.

Acknowledged.

77241 began to breathe deeply and steadily as the Time Bubble accelerated upward through the lower layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Attaining Geosynchronous Orbit in 30 seconds ... Mark ...

Geosynchronous Orbit Established.

Now Executing Time Travel Program Phoenix Omega-1.

The final O-Bombs are now falling. We are now only moments from our own destruction. May God have mercy on us.

A red light appeared over the Voice Interface Main Control.

"All this has never even been tested. Voice Interface going unstable. Must’ve been partially damaged while penetrating the Dome. No time to debug. Turning it off. Switching to Manual Mode. Leaving Audio ON for Time Reference. My God! All those people! The oxygen bombs are increasing the O2 content in the atmosphere and igniting it! Every living thing is being burned alive down there!

"Black Hole relays to engine still off-line. Damn it. More bugs. Switching to Disaster Drive Mode. Far more difficult to control, but I have no choice. This is a big enough disaster for the initial thrust back in time. Father, whoever you were, your designs got me this far. Thank you. I can’t find the answer here. Not now! The past is this world’s only chance. I’ve got to risk time travel.

"Accelerating ... 10,000 miles per second ...

"50,000 miles per second ....

The moon! Hard over! ...

The Time Bubble rotates like a beach ball, just feet away from striking the moon’s surface and then thrust itself upward, away from the moon.

"Whew! That was close! .... 75,000 ...

"100,000 miles per second ... 150,000 ... space curving ...

"180,000 ... approaching light-speed ... 186,195 ... Time Stream forming ahead ... 186,255 ...

"C’mon! .... just a little more! ... ... 186,285 miles per second! ....

Beyond light speed! Speed indicator ... meaningless! Off the scale!

All places in Time and Space open up to him.

"Holy ...! So this is what it’s like! .... I see everything! .... Everything! ....

Now, the Time Control lever -- moving it backward ... g-forces stabilizing to zero ... now choose my direction vector ... I’ve done it!

He looked over his shoulder one last time at the world he once knew. It was being torn asunder.

Nothing but smoldering ash, he whispered to himself.

The planet where these strange events took place was once known as Earth. His time-corridor entry point was Tuesday, January 16, 2080 -- the last recorded date of our known civilization.

He began to move away from his entry point, accelerating faster and faster. The passage of time was now slowing itself.

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:23.7

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:24.8

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:24.9

The passage of time stopped.

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:24.9

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:24.9

Events started to run backward, slowly at first then picking up speed. He did not look at the events taking place about the corridor now enclosing him, their pace quickening.

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:23.3

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:44:19.8

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:42:17.6

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:40:23.7

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 14:37:42.1

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 13:56:19.7

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 12:46:37.8

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 11:45:41.3

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 09:00:00.0

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2080, 02:00:00.1

Current Location In Time: January 15, 2080, 02:33:22.9

A protective bubble had enclosed him within the corridor. He sent a signal from the mobile wrist device which tied in with the main console within the bubble. He was seated in one of the two seats in front of the main console. He keyed in the required information to leave the present. The bubble rose within the time corridor. His journey through time had begun. A Black Hole lay within the confines of the corridor and he accelerated in its direction.

Current Location In Time: January 09, 2080, 02:45:23.7

Current Location In Time: December 16, 2079, 02:45:24.8

Current Location In Time: March 16, 2079, 11:45:11.8

Current Location In Time: January 06, 2078, 10:45:23.7

Current Location In Time: April 19, 2075, 11:37:42.1

Current Location In Time: January 16, 2072, 02:37:42.1

"I’m traveling backward in time through the Time Stream Corridor!

Alright, Albert Einstein, I’m putting you in the driver’s seat.

Current Location In Time: 2068

Audio Time Reference Now Buffering ...

The former State of California has now been separated from the mainland as a massive earthquake opened the San Andreas Fault Line ...

The Island State of California drifted to the east. The two land masses rejoined.

Current Location In Time: 2040

From this time forward, all former Americans will be issued numbers, instead of names ...

Current Location In Time: 2024

Continued drought and an economic upheaval on Wall Street ...

Current Location In Time: 2014

Record heat wave temperatures were experienced this summer in the Southern U.S. States ...

Current Location In Time: 2005

Today, one of America’s greatest authors, Arthur Miller, passed away ...

Current Location In Time: 2001

In what was an unprovoked attack, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were ...

Current Location In Time: 1987

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! ...

Current Location In Time: 1974

I will resign as President of these United States ...

Current Location In Time: 1972

This morning, 11 Israeli Olympic athletes were killed when..

Current Location In Time: 1969

That’s one small step for Man, one ... giant leap for Mankind ...

Computer, begin Deceleration Sequence.

Deceleration Sequence Activating.

Current Location In Time: 1964

Ladies and Gentlemen ... I give you ... ‘The Beatles’! ... announced Ed Sullivan above the screaming fans.

Current Location In Time: 1963

This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News, New York. President Kennedy died at 1:30 pm, Central Time ...

Kennedy! There’s my chance! He kick-started the U.S. Apollo Missions to the moon. He’ll understand time travel and if I save his life this far back in the past, like I am now, there might be enough of a Time Change Wave to change my time!

Current Location In Time: 1962

Computer, continue Deactivation Sequence. Switch to Audio-Visual.

Current Location In Time: May 19, 1962

Happy Birthday, Mr. President ...Happy Birthday to you! Everybody! ...

Acknowledged.

That voice! Marilyn Monroe?

Deactivation Sequence in operation, but I’m not slowing down! It’s out of my control! Too much thrust from 2080 Disaster Point! I’m overshooting ... Close my eyes and pray! There’s nothing more that I can do!

Current Location In Time: July 4, 1961

Please, if there’s a God ... send me a sign. Send me ... an angel ... with the swiftest of wings to catch me!

Current Location In Time: May 25, 1961

"We go into space because whatever Mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

"I, therefore, ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following National Goals:

First, I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the Goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single Space Project in this period …

Current Location In Time: June 5, 1960

There was a loud thump that echoed through the Time Bubble.

What the hell was that?!? exclaimed 77241, opening his eyes and grabbing the controls. "Ship doesn’t appear to be damaged, but she’s sluggish, controls not responding fast enough. I’ve got to try to land ... NOW! Desert. Looks like old Nevada, the Black Rock Desert. Time Readout -- June 5, 1960! She’s going in. No way of stopping her. What the hell was that back there in the time stream?!? Whatever it was, it knocked this Bubble right out of it! There’s an open area below. I’ll land there. It’s around noon. It’ll be stinking hot in that desert. Hope I find someone out in that wasteland to help me.

"Could’ve sworn I saw another Time Bubble in the Time Stream! And it was being piloted by someone looking like a young Mark Twain, shaking his fist at me! Figures he would be my angel! There were two others with him -- a young girl ... and someone looking like Marilyn Monroe, who was yelling at Twain! And each of them dressed in clothing from about a generation ago, in my parents’ time period. Twain was from the 19th century and Monroe from the 20th century and driving a Time Bubble looking even more advanced than this one? ... That’s impossible! I must’ve been seeing things. I must’ve been hallucinating! Hearing her voice, now seeing her in another Time Bubble??? 77241, that woman’s beginning to haunt you! Get a grip! No more holograms of her on New Year’s Eve for me! I’ve decided to get drunk, like everyone else does at that time of the year, from now on!

Desert below me. Just what I need to clear her out of my head! 45298 was right about her possessing people! No more of Marilyn Monroe for me!

His exit point would be in the Black Rock Desert, in the State of Nevada. He looked at the chronometer. The date read June 5, 1960.

Chapter 6

As he walked along the desert floor, the hot sun began to beat upon him like a heavy weight. Was it right to try to change the past? Hadn’t mankind brought about its own destruction? And why did his Time Bubble come to rest here, at this particular time and place?

The tides of the disastrous events of the 1960s had acted like a brake pumping itself, slowing his trip backward through time as the craft and its lone occupant encountered each disaster in reverse. Why here? Why now?

They had crudely pushed him into this