Journey to Gone: Creating Zoom Travel

By Theodore J. Gourley Jr.

Journey to Gone

A TOMORROWS CHILDREN SERIES BOOK
By Theodore J. Gourley Jr. Ed.D


It begins with Pop Pop saying

Sit down children and listen to the story of the creation of the Gone Machine and Zoom Travel that Roy and I created and our adventures along the way

Jon was the first Gone Machine traveler. He thought hed be alone in cyber space; he didnt know there were pirates there! What was that? It almost killed me!
The Journey to Gone is the story of two very different boys who become lifelong friends. When they meet, Jon is an outgoing middle school student with an interest in art, girls, sometimes sports but never school work. Roy is disabled, picked on by bullies, reserved, brilliant and an honor student. As they grow they realize that what one lacks the other has and in time their combined talents, knowledge and imagination resulting in numerous inventions and adventures. Their inventions range from Tat-Go which easily and painlessly removes old tattoos to make room for new ones, to mind controlled cars, to a teleportation device they name Gone Machine because once youre in it and push the button all that remains of you is Gone.

Their success attacks worldwide attention including the envy of those who want to steal their ideas. The results include robberies, sabotage, murder, and adventures across the globe and into Cyber Space, the land of the Gone Machine and Cyber Pirates. Along the way Jon and Roy become inventive, courageous adults.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514428481

Theodore J. Gourley Jr.

This is the first novel by Ted Gourley. As a teacher, school administrator, professor and education consultant he has created and developed a number of programs for students of all ages and grade levels, from elementary through graduate school. His education program have been used by teachers and students of all ages throughout the United States and other countries .Information on his current programs Cognetics, Thinking Skills, Research Options, Comics & Silent Movies, and Art Gallery, are available through Encore Educational Institute at www.encoreacademics.com and Earth Park through Royal Firework Press www.rfwp.com

Book preview

PART ONE

Story Time

What you doing, Pop-Pop Jon? asked Sally.

Thinking, honey, thinking the old gentleman answered.

What about, Pop? asked Sally’s brother, Mike.

Lots of things, but mostly things in the past, and how life has changed, especially since about 2050, the grandfather answered.

Wow! That was before I was born, said Mike.

Pop-Pop Jon, Mom said you created Zoom Travel. How did you do it? asked Sally.

We called it the Gone Machine in the beginning. It was the first ever real teleportation machine to transport humans. That first ride was a scary one, not like the rides today. First let me tell you no one does anything like that by themselves! No sir! And that was sure true of me. I had the help of two great friends, and maybe some divine intervention, but I can’t say that for sure, replied Pop-Pop.

But Pop, tell us how you did it, pleaded Mike.

I will, but if you want to hear the story, you have to listen to the whole story, and I’ll tell it my way. Now you sit back and learn. First, I’m going to tell you about the scariest ride of my life. Then I will tell you how my friend Roy Wright and I created the Gone Machine. You know, no one creates anything like by themselves. For extra help we also had our friend Jay Farstein, explained Pop-Pop.

How old were you Pop-pop asked Mike? I bet you were old like maybe 30.

Yea we were at least that old Pop replied.

Pop-Pop, is it a long story? asked Sally.

Yes.

Well how long? We’re on vacation and want to do fun stuff, you know said Peter.

Do you want to hear the story? Maybe it’s too long for you. Maybe you should go play.

No, Pop-Pop, we want to hear the story. Don’t we, Mike?

Yes, Sally. Pop, tell us the story, responded Mike.

Ok, but no more interruptions.

Ok we promise, right Mike?

Right, everybody.

We promise, Pop. We really promise.

CHAPTER 1

Gone Forever?

When they tried the first teleportation, they sent a stone. When they looked in the teleportor launcher device, the stone was gone.

Roy insisted that Jon be the first to travel in the teleportor, because Roy already had enough scrambled parts. Jon protested at first, saying he didn’t want to come out all mixed up, like maybe with feet for hands and hands for feet.

Roy’s reply was: "Why not? You love coming up with crazy ideas, you might enjoy the novelty.

Roy was smart, insightful, a serious scholar and sometimes humorous. He was occasionally given to colorful expressions he called a Royism which Jon countered with his own Jonism. He dreamed of being one of the people who changed the world, and recognized that the way we travel was creating a greater problem than it solved. He often said: Building roads and uprooting communities as we make roads is dangerous, harmful and insensitive to the real needs of people.

You just say that because you don’t like cars, replied Jon. I love them. They’re fast and cool, and fun to drive. Besides, we already got rid of most of the gas powered cars and replaced them with simple efficient solar cell vehicles. But oh how I miss the roar of a big V-8. These cars today don’t even make a sound.

We’re going to outlive standard cars. They’re holding us back and making more problems than they solve, responded Roy. These were the two sides of the argument, one moving us to the future and the other holding us back. It was that way then, always was, and always will be.

Are we going to do this or are we going to talk all day? chimed in Jay, the third member of the team. He was a mechanical engineer and all around fix it or make it down to earth type of guy. He was great to have on the team, but not one for conversation, contemplation, or questioning the job at hand.

In response to Jay’s comment, Jon entered the launcher. Remember to feed my cats.

Roy and Jay pushed the button and Jon was hurled into a world of flashing lights and sensations of no physical reality. As he tumbled through space he saw a being coming toward him, with something in its hand. It raised the object over its head and rushed toward Jon. Jon screamed for his life.

After pushing the button, Roy and Jay were surprised to experience nothing. No noise, screams, vibrations. Nothing happened.

I guess it didn’t work, said Jay.

Yeah, a lot of work for nothing, responded Roy. Let’s open it up and get Jon out.

Roy watched as Jay opened the launcher. Jay’s mouth dropped, and his face turned white as he gasped. He’s gone! There’s nothing left of him. Jon’s really gone!

Pop-Pop is this going to be a scary story?

Are you going to ask a thousand questions?

Pop-Pop I don’t think I can count to a thousand.

Can I continue with the story?

Yes, but I hope it’s not scary.

CHAPTER 2

Where Am I

Jon couldn’t see anything, feel anything, or hear anything. He was in the middle of nothing and scared enough to be sick to his stomach except he couldn’t even do that!

Jon asked himself: How long have I been here? Where am I? What happened? Am I dead? Is this what it is like to die? Then he began to remember. It was the teleportor; he had been launched. He felt some relief and wanted to take a breath but couldn’t. What is this and how long have I been here? Am I traveling or vaporized or what?

He knew that allowing himself to panic was the worst thing he could do. He had to somehow center himself and come to grips with the current reality. This isn’t a solid three dimensional world. I think I’m energy or something like that. Wait. As a solid human, I am also energy but this is different. I can think. I can’t feel my hands but it’s kind of like they are there. We did some experiments with stuff and … I don’t want to go there not yet. Let me try to understand where and what I am now.

Now, what is now? Has it been days, weeks, a second, or the blink of an eye? I don’t know. I got in the launcher and then FLASH and I’m here…wherever that is. Think, think, think Jon! Where are you? I think I can see, but there’s nothing to look at. Well maybe light. There is something like light. Sound, is there sound? There is something. Maybe it’s just that I know that I can hear but I don’t know if there is anything to hear. I have the sensation of my body parts. I can’t feel anything but I have the sensation that I could feel if there was something to feel.

As he talked to himself he began to calm down. It was like taking a deep breath and realizing that you dove off a cliff into a pool of water and made it to the surface. You still had to make it to shore but you survived the dive and were still alive.

Where am I? he asked himself again, but with less panic and more reason. He remembered the teleportor and remembered from the experiments that it turned an object in the teleportor into what he, Roy and Jay thought of as energy. Now he asked himself if he was alone or if he had company? Think…think…think! he told himself. He had a funny feeling that he was not alone. He looked around and saw nothing, no one. Wait! Roy and Jay had been there when he entered the teleportor.

It was all starting to come back to him. Three of them had been working on a project to create a teleportation device. Three of them were involved in this: Jon, his best friend Roy, and another of his best friends, Jay. Now Jon remembered that the whole teleportation idea was all Roy’s idea.

So why didn’t Roy try the teleportor first? he asked himself. Because Roy is smarter than me, that’s why was his answer.

He kept asking and answering himself. If so, why didn’t Jay take the trip? Well, Jay was really only in it for the planning, not the adventure.

Then why did I take the trip? Because I, Jon, am passionate, emotional, adventuresome, an artist, a lover, and a dreamer, yeah, and sitting in the middle of some kind of cyberspace dreaming of being the first teleportation traveler and praying I don’t end up a like a fried egg in a microwave. I should have been an accountant or gone into government and teaching work like my brother, Professor Theo. Sitting in an office or classroom telling other people what to do, grading papers and collecting a pension. No, I had to be an artist, a creator, an idiot!

Jon was getting it together and coming to his senses. His only hope at this time was that this thing really worked and that Roy and Jay were on top of things and not out having lunch.

CHAPTER 3

Back at Home Base

It had only been a few seconds between the time Roy pushed the button and the time when Jay open the launcher and found that Jon was gone.

Of course he’s gone, said Jay. That’s what the launcher is supposed to do. Right?

Yes, that is what it’s supposed to do, answered Roy. But I really didn’t know if it would work. Well, I mean, not on a living thing, especially a human.

But you guys tested this thing, right? asked Jay.

Yeah, we tested it on rocks, a book, and a deck of cards, replied Roy.

Getting frustrated, Jay asked What about animals? You did test it on animals didn’t you?

Well, there was a rat. Actually it was a dead rat, said Roy.

Ok, so what happened? Jay asked.

It went through okay, but there was a problem, said Roy.

Problem, what kind of problem? asked Jay.

It wasn’t really a dead rat. It was a stuffed rat that the school’s science department was throwing out, explained Roy. It went through okay. The skin was fine, the fur was fine, the glass eyes were fine, the cotton stuffing was fine, even the claws on its little fingers were fine.

But it was a stuffed rat, not even a real dead rat, never mind a live rat or a live, best friend human being. Tell me, said Jay, Why did you let Jon try the teleportor based on this kind of testing?

I know it sounds like we acted foolishly and recklessly but there were good reasons and Jon knew the reasons and risks and agreed to be launched anyway, Roy answered. He went on to explain. There was a full testing plan starting with inorganic objects like rocks, cards, and books, with a thorough examination of the objects before and after they were sent. All went through fine and came back fine. The next step was to test non-living organic material, like the stuffed rat. Again, everything went fine. Their testing and evaluation plan then called for testing of living plants, then animals, and ending with the testing of a living human. Jon had always wanted to be the first person to experience teleportation. He dreamed of being an explorer and hero and going down in history among other great firsts, like Columbus and the Wright Brothers."

Well, that’s Jon, said Jay. But why didn’t you tell me this before?

Jay, you were new to the team at that time. We didn’t consciously try to exclude you. It was just an oversight. Roy went on to explain that the first tests told Jon and Roy that they were on to something, but they knew that they were over their heads when it came to the mechanical and technical skills needed to create a full size teleportor. They always knew that when they got to this point they would call on Jay to help them. Roy reminded Jay: When we contacted you, you came running.

I did come running, said Jay. I knew you guys were working on this project and always hoped you would ask me to join you. But why didn’t you continue the testing as planned?

Have you ever heard of Cyber Pirates? asked Roy.

Yeah, they’re in a class with green men from Mars, vampires, ghosts and other scary creatures. They make great stories but they’re not real, answered Jay.

Roy responded, I don’t know about green men, vampires and ghosts, but cyber pirates are real and they found out about the dead rat test.

CHAPTER 4

Pirate One

It seemed like hours but it had only been a few seconds when Jon reached full consciousness just as the thing with something in its hand raced toward him. Jon’s mind twisted his body and the object missed Jon completely. Now awake and alert Jon knew what was happening, but not what to do.

The creature was a Cyber Pirate Warrior scout, and the object was an energy blast with the power to completely destroy Jon. Not just kill him but destroy him so that nothing of him would ever reach the teleportation receiver. Jon would just not exist.

The force of the Warrior’s attack on Jon shot the pirate forward for several seconds at the speed of light. The attacker was now thousands of miles beyond Jon. A quick look around told Jon that the creature was gone. Where it went, Jon wasn’t sure, but that it would return he was sure. Jon had to get to the teleportation receiver before the creature returned.

Cyber Pirates began with the work of hackers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 was a wake-up call to the world. It was the first real sign that the power of small groups and the use of technology could be a threat to a major population. This scout wasn’t a real live organic being. It was more like a cyber robot that worked for a network in return for the energy it received from that network. It needed energy to exist and had no regard for living beings. The scout and all other cyber warriors were energy based life forms with no regard for the carbon based life such as plants and animals, but did have a strong alliance with some humans in return for an energy. Pirates provided the energy the scouts needed to exist, and in return the scouts worked for the pirates. It was a classic symbiotic relationship and unless you were a victim of the pirate and his scout, it worked great.

Jon wasn’t exactly sure what had attacked him. He wasn’t even sure he was attacked, but didn’t want to take any chances. The stories of Cyber Pirates were known to most people and especially those who did advanced work in cyber space technology. He remembered that shortly after their first successful launches of nonliving subjects, he and Roy got an email message that an organization knew of their experiments and wanted the technology for their own use. Roy replied that they were not interested. Moments later the data on the computer that sent the email was consumed by a virus that left a message on the computer screen that read Change your minds. Take our offer now. This time we mean business.

If it was a scout that just tried to attack him, Jon knew he was lucky to still be in existence. Jon really had no power; he was powered by the teleportor and unless Roy and Jay took control of him real soon, he was history. Yet somehow he had moved and avoided the attack or whatever it was. Now he had to remember how he managed to move. What gave him the power to move? Then it occurred to him he was in unchartered territory. Everything about teleportation was pretty much theory, especially concerning animate objects like humans. As far as Jon and his team knew he was the first person to ever travel via teleportation.

So maybe I can move to avoid an attack, Jon thought. The scout might not be as good at moving as it thinks; if it thinks. If I could stay away from it for a few minutes, then Roy and Jay could pull me into real time on the receiver.

Now Jon could feel a force approaching, and knew it would be there in an instant. Jon suddenly moved left, and the scout shot by him.

Okay, so I can move, thought Jon. But how long can I keep this up?

He knew his only hope was for Roy and Jay to start the receiver. Now he could feel the scout approaching again and before the scout reached him, Jon moved again. However the distance from which the scout was attacking decreased with each of its movements, and Jon realized that, as he was learning to move to avoid an attack, the scout was learning to track his movements.

He could feel the scout attacker returning. Jon moved but the attacker passed so close that force of the energy vacuum left by his passing sucked Jon backwards. Jon had one, maybe two more attacks before the scout captured and probably destroyed him. Two passes, maybe two seconds. What happened to Roy and Jay? It was a really bad time to take a lunch break!

CHAPTER 5

Running Out of Time

Roy and Jay knew something was wrong they could see two objects on their monitor. Roy was fighting to stay calm, while Jay was paralyzed with fear. Roy was always a thinker. He analyzed everything before acting, but once he had it figured out he attacked the problem with a vengeance. He knew that cyber pirates and scouts were real, and they were looking for whoever was experimenting with teleportation. He knew that they didn’t know it was Roy and his partners, or they would have attacked and destroyed them by now. He was also familiar with the popular theory that if a human was in cyber travel, he would not have any power, since all human power was based on physical strength and not electronic strength. However, Roy wasn’t sure that theory was correct, and Roy was almost always right especially when he thought something out carefully.

Jon’s out there and he can’t move! cried Jay. What are we going to do? What if the pirates find him? They’ll kill him! Roy we’ve got to do something. Maybe I can go out there and help him.

We can’t help him by sending you out there. We’ll probably only lose you too. You need to help me get the receiver running. I’m afraid my fingers move too slowly to save him in time.

The receiver was at the other end of the building, almost 150 feet away. When Roy was born, no one would have thought he could ever take a step on his own, and even as a child in grade school it took him several long tiring minutes to walk on crutches from one end of the classroom to the other. Some of the early problems Roy learned to overcome were the result of the physical limits imposed by his disability. So, with the help of his crutches, both he and Jay were at the controls in less than 40 seconds.

Turn on full power, Roy yelled to Jay. Tell me when everything is at max force.

It only took about 10 seconds to reach full force, but to Jay and Roy it seemed like hours. Full power, yelled Jay.

Starting receiver. yelled Roy. Come on, come on, come on!

It usually took about 20 seconds for the receiver to start up all of its programs necessary to retrieve an object. The physical distance of the launcher from the receiver didn’t have much effect on the time it took to fetch the teleported traveler, well not for a traveler on any point on earth, because the traveler was moving at about the speed of light. However, it did take a little time for all systems to be up and operating.

Normally in other tests Roy and Jay would be saying Okay, that was quick. We’re ready to go. But this wasn’t a normal test of a stone, or a dead rat. No this test had Jon out in space about to be killed by some space creature and Jay was now walking in circles shouting, Hurry up, hurry up. Roy had on his usual calm exterior composure while inside his heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode.

Full power was finally reached and the retrieval could begin. Jay checked the inside of the receiver chamber to insure that no foreign object was present. The force generated by the receiver could cause anything larger than a pea to explode and damage the receiver.

Receiver clear, shouted Jay.

Full power on, said Roy.

Traveler data entered in program, said Jay, wringing his hands.

Searching traveler screen, said Roy. No traveler visible.

He’s got to be there, replied Jay.

CHAPTER 6

It’s About Time

Jon was a natural born athlete. As a kid, he was excellent at skiing, skate boarding, and other physical sports that relied on balance and fast movement over distances. Now these innate skills came in handy, giving him the ability to quickly move out of the way of the attacking scout. By the third attack Jon began to realize that these memories of skills from his youth were kicking in and helping him to elude his attacker. By the fourth successful dodge he was getting cocky and thinking: Come on try it again. My mother has moves better than you and she’s an old lady.

Whether or not the scout could read Jon’s thoughts, it seemed more determined to attack this stranger in its territory. The attacks were coming faster and the scout was learning to control its speed and return for another closer attack in less and less time.

Now Jon was really getting into his old skateboard moves and flipping over the attacker. But after the second flip the scout began to realize that Jon would move up and over it, and the attacker started to make a last moment upward change in its attack.

Whooo! Getting smarter, whatever you are. Well, wait and see what I do next time! Jon thought.

The scout was learning to control the speed of its attack and slow down just as it reached the point where Jon should be. This enabled it to turn around and attack again in less and less time.

Okay, lightening ball. See what I have for you this time, said Jon.

On the next scout approach, Jon faked right, then left, and then did a 360 with a twist under the passing scout, so he was now facing the direction from which the scout would be returning. Again it attacked, and this time Jon did a double fake and dropped below the scout. On the next, pass Jon decided to change his routine and passed over the scout. As he did he realized the scout had anticipated Jon to drop below it, and changed its course at the last instant to drop to where it expected Jon to be. On the following pass, Jon did his usual double fake, but then stayed at the same level. The scout anticipated Jon would move up and passed over Jon.

At first Jon gloated in successfully out maneuvering the scout again and again. Then he realized the scout was rapidly learning to anticipate his moves. Surely on one of these passes the scout would correctly anticipate Jon’s move. Then what would happen? Jon was only a visitor in the scout’s world. Besides, this maneuvering took energy and Jon was getting tired. He needed to get back to his own physical world and soon.

What’s keeping those guys from retrieving me? he thought. I can’t last much longer - maybe a few more passes. Then that thing will have me and I don’t know what that means.

About this time Jon began to detect another force. At first he feared it was another attacker. He was starting to have trouble out maneuvering one and he doubted he would last long against two. But this new force had a different essence, a rhythm. It was different than