Time Is: Time Is, #1

By David Booker

The Temporal Correlation Vector Transport Device is now fully functional. As Scott and Don admire their creation they realize the possibilities and possible consequences. Scott is convinced that their is no difficulty because time is linear and everything is set in place. If they will go back in time they already have. If they change something in history they already have. Don is not so sure but has no argument to back him up. With nothing to lose they begin a series of adventures through time visiting famous times and people. Living as they did and exploring day to day what different periods were like. Not all goes according to plan as their first trips involve the burning down of the first Globe Theater and the distruction of part of the sphynx. But with care they expand their journeys going to see Lepetomain in France, they get kicked out by the way. They meet Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, one at a bordello, guess which one. They spend a week with a young Abe Lincoln and become friends with the residents of New Salem. Scott as the primary inventor takes trips upon trips sometimes going on three at once. His final trip takes him to Rome as an old man and when he is trapped with Pliny at Mt Versuvias it takes it's tole on them both. Now it is up to Don to carry on with his new friend Honey Deau. Don is depressed due to the loss of his friend but this is a time travel novel so their is a good chance he'll see him again on one of his and Honey's trips. This novel was researched thouroly to present a tale that has the feeling of times past. With humor, insight and exciting characters it's a warm and wonderful novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Booker
• Release date: Jul 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223823605

David Booker

David Booker is an author who wiill try his hand at numerous styles. Short stories, mysteries, humor, horror, time travel and rants he enjoys a constant challenge. With a seven book series under the Time Is banner to A Glimpse of My Shorts and Another Glimpse he churns out books regularly. 

Book preview

TIME IS

DAVID BOOKER

This book is a work of Fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents are either created by the author or fabricated. Any resemblance to actual events, locations or persons living or dead is purely coincidental

Copyright © 2020 by David Booker

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book either in entirety or any portion thereof, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews without written permission in writing from its publisher.

For information or request address

[e-mail]

or

timeiswaswillbe.wordpress.com

Dedicated to my family

Without their support nothing I have accomplished could ever have happened and with deepest gratitude to Marion who has always been my inspiration in anything creative I have ever done

Table of Contents

TIME IS

A LOOK BACK

SOJOURN THE FIRST

LONDON DERRIERE

SOJOURN THE SECOND

SOMETHING SPHINX

CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE

LOOKING UP A LEGEND

MEANDERINGS

HOME ONCE MORE

TRANSITION

NEW SALEM, LAND OF LINCOLN

WORKING AT WORK WORKS

TRANSITIONS ONCE MORE

THE LAST TRAVELS OF SCOTT LEMUEL

BREEDS HILL

EXPECTATIONS

TIME IS

"T ime is. That is all you can say about it. It is finite, infinite, linear, and abstract. We have defined time to suit our needs and ideas therefore time is a planetary agreed upon construct by which we measure its passage and future."

Scott Lemuel, Time Traveler

I swiveled in my chair Hey Scott, what time is it? The moment I said it I knew I shouldn’t have. He prised his long thin body from the computer chair at his console and walked slowly towards me, his forehead puckered in deepening thought. When and where he asked. I controlled the exasperation in my voice, Here and now please. I really wish Scott would let me wear a watch. Do you want to know from when you asked or from the future construct of the time our question and answer period ends, and I check my watch? I knew he was enjoying himself by the slight smirk on his face. Roll up your sleeve, look at your watch and tell me what time it says, please. I pleaded. I was having a hard time controlling my temper but to lose it would only bring about a greater discourse from Scott.

He ponderously rolled back his sleeve, looked at his watch, mentally added about 7 seconds for his answer and thereby gave me the time when his answer had finished, Precisely 1445:36 he answered with that smug look I knew far too well. I hated that look.

Scott, why do we have to go through this every time I ask you the time?  He looked at me with mild surprise that I would even ask. Precision, especially in time, is of paramount importance, the more closely you keep track of time the more you are able to accomplish within the time allowed.

Scott won’t let me have a watch of my own as he claims it would upset the sensitive computational and geographical diodes of his machine, its B.S. and he knows I know it is B.S. it is just so he can play this game, I don’t mind but sometimes it gets a little old. (Side note: I used to have the greatest fossil watch; it was a sundial. I had a tiny watch on the band so I could tell people the time and make it look like I was using it. One guy asked how I used it at night. I told him I just used a flashlight. I thought it was hysterical. Sorry I digress)

In case you wanted to know I’m a computer repair technician and used to work for Best Buy. I also studied computer programming in the old languages COBOL, RPG, FORTRAN ASSEMBLER. I was sent out on a repair job to this prefab building Scott put up in the middle of a field. After seeing that I knew about creating circuit boards and programming, he offered me a job helping him put together the machine he was working on. That was over two years ago, and we were now at the finishing stages of building what he calls his Temporal Correlation Vector Transport Device. Or T.C.V.T.D. for short. I have more than a hint as to what it is and what it would do but none on how it would work or what he intended to do with it. I pretend not to understand things sometimes just to please Scott, he used to be a teacher and loves explaining things.

My task is the relatively unskilled portion of soldering board components and fitting pieces in place where he tells me, though there are times when I am able to perform more intricate tasks like make coffee or run out for sandwiches. Actually, there is more to it than that as I also program and encode the chips when he tells me what he needs. It feels good to use the knowledge I worked so hard to gain.

As it stands now, the T.C.V.T.D. is a thick partial wall with a doorway, think 25ft wide by 4 feet thick and 9 feet high with the doorway about 5 feet wide in the center. The doorway has a back panel that becomes the portal once activated. It also stands in the middle and to the back of the lab. I think we should have placed it anywhere else as it’s a nuisance to get around it to get to the bathroom in a hurry. 

Once it is completed the walls will be covered in jet black panels and the only control feature will be a small 2-foot square touch screen. I am pretty sure we can have it buttoned up today, I hope so since we have been going nonstop since noon and it is now almost 2200. (Note: Scott and I are both prior military and we use military time. In case this confuses you, just remember that 0001 to 1200 is A.M. and 1201 to 0000 is P.M. got it? If you do, you caught on faster than I did. It took me months. Sorry, just thought you might want to know.) I am tired, hungry and need a beer.

Scott looked at me with his spaniel eyes in a face which reminded me a lot of Captain Picard. Don, I would like you to stay on tonight and help me finish please. Whenever he really wants me to stay late or do anything he thinks I might object to he gives me a look that reminded me a lot of my old dog Trots when he wanted a treat, I usually gave in. I enjoy this project and even though he was paying me a lot of money to assist I also just enjoy his company. Scott is usually serious about time and this project, but he can be a lot of laughs. He knows plenty of stories that would have you rolling on the floor. He was in the Air Force and has traveled around the globe with stories about everywhere he has been. I was in the Army myself and while we are working, we spend a lot of time arguing over the relative merits of each.

I finished soldering the boards, then pieced them into the various ports. I watched him walk around the almost finished machine and make some more adjustments and inputs. I knew once he sealed it, it should only require the regular mapping updates and a simple system check. Put the access panel in place and then seal it. After you're done, we’ll talk. He closed his laptop with an air of finality. As I placed the panel in place and put the coverings over the rest of the machine, I was glad to hear him calling a Chinese place and ordering dinner. I was pleased the idea of food had finally crossed his mind. By the time dinner arrived I had finished placing the rest of the covers.

Don, do you understand what we have built here? His face was flushed with excitement to the top of his bald head, his hands trembled, and his eyes were bright. Let me guess, a time machine! I exclaimed with mock enthusiasm. His eyes lost their sparkle and his face went pale. Did you extrapolate that from the components you have been installing? His voice registered a surprise that was almost an insult. With your obsession about time and the programs I have been writing and the tests we did, I kind of guessed what it was!

Of course, that is what it is. Frustration at my guessing welled from every pore of his body. I suddenly thought about the reality of what it was for a second and voiced my misgivings, I suppose you realize that if this works, we have just created the end of civilization as we know it, don't you.

A LOOK BACK

Time waits for nobody .

Dave Clark

Aaaand once more I knew I had opened the lecture door. He sat down across from me, placed his hands on his knees and looked deep into my eyes with an intensity I found unnerving. I know I have discussed this with you in the past but, you never seem to grasp that if time travel is possible, it has already been accomplished whether now or in the future and that all that is past, present and future is as it should be whether someone has travel back, forward, or sideways, through time. The past, present and future all combine to create now, and nothing can change that now because all combined to create it.

I wondered aloud, Shouldn’t there be multiple timelines if every action created causes something to be altered?  No! He slapped his knee there is only one timeline equal to the sum of all its parts and interconnected seamlessly. No action we do now changes the future because the future is intertwined with the past and present.

He waited for another remark from me. I was hungry so kept my mouth shut and headed for the food. He followed me and continued his lecture. As I started unpacking the bags, he continued to slap his finger in his palm while he went on, Time is continual and linear. It is interconnected and therefore both infinite and finite. This machine we have constructed correlates time periods to the microsecond using a merging of present time and an exact representation of any other time thereby creating a conduit through which a portal is created so that time and this time are bound as a single entity and can be traversed. Using this present fraction or section of time as a base point we correlate any other time period adjusting for location using longitude and latitude as well as adjusting for the rotation of the earth to give us a junction point.

My head began to swim as his voice dinned in my ears. While you have been constructing the doorway, I have been regulating my clock and it is adjusted down to microseconds. Once calibrated and set, I can put in a latitude and longitude location, date and time to be placed against our present time using a variance allowance of .0047 seconds, this gives us our traverse junction. As we ate, he continued.

Pick a date, time and place that is significant to you, be as detailed as possible. He waited with his arms crossed his chest and an impatient look on his face. Patience has never been his strong suit. I thought of just giving him some random place and time, but the more I thought of it the more I thought if this is possible why not see something worthwhile.

May 1, 1893, The World’s Fair in Chicago, Starting point the Museum of Science and Industry. Location 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago Illinois with a time of 0200. This was the date and location for the start of the world’s fair in Chicago. I thought we might need to do this when the fewest people were there. I used Google Maps to get the latitude and longitude. I was even able to pinpoint an area secluded enough that arrival wouldn’t be noticed.

May I enquire why this particular place and event is significant? he asked as he turned back to enter in the information. I relaxed back in my chair an memories flooded my thoughts, When I was a kid my grandparents talked about it a lot. It was where they had their first date. My grandpa saved for a year to take her there. I smiled as I thought of the warm look that came into their eyes when they talked about it. They used to talk about all the innovations that they looked forward to seeing in the future. Too bad a lot of them never materialized, but I just loved listening to their stories. I felt as if I was there myself sometimes.

Scott half turned in his chair. I never realized how strong your emotions could be. Your grandparents must have meant a great deal to you. He entered the coordinates and information into the computer and then saved them onto a key, sort of a very thin thumb drive. 

SOJOURN THE FIRST

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Lozai

It didn’t take long for him to transfer in the coordinates and time. Suddenly the machine started humming. I double checked the backup battery cells and they were holding at 70 percent depletion with the fill rate equalized at that point. Since the fill rate remained constant, I wasn’t worried about surges or power drains and gave him the ok. Scott looked at me sadly. I am sorry Don but since this is our first test and we don’t know what is going to happen I feel only one of us should go and the other monitor. I figured he would be the one going so I resigned myself to my fate and lay back in my chair to wait. He looked at me sharply, Well, what are you waiting for, go through, spend about five minutes there and come back. Bring back something identifiable for corroboration.

He pressed a corner on the screen and the opening showed a night view of the back of what I hope and assume is the museum. I stuck my head through and looked side to side to make sure no one was around. I banged against the wall when Scott pushed me through with his boot. Remember; be back here in five minutes exactly. I don’t want to have the portal open any longer than necessary.

I stood there rubbing my nose where it had hit the wall and glared at the fading portal. Don’t get me wrong, I really do like Scott but sometimes he does things I just don’t get.

I looked around for something to take back. I found a flyer from a stack of them and rolled it up. I also found a package of Juicy Fruit gum and a box of Cracker Jacks in a trash receptacle. They both looked a lot different from the ones I see in the store, so I figured they’d do.

I didn’t want to venture too far off as my clothes wouldn’t have matched this time period and I didn’t want to try and explain my appearance. I stood at the corner of the building in the shadows and took in as much as I could. Had I had time to think I would have grabbed my cell phone for a few pictures.

I started making mental notes of what I saw from where I was. In front of me was a long pool with gondolas in it. A huge statue of who I assumed to be Columbia was lit up at one end. I saw a Ferris wheel also lit up to the side. I realized that electricity was still a relatively new invention in the U.S. In the far distance I could smell Lake Michigan and even thought I could hear the roar of the surf. It was a dazzling site and my mind suddenly grasped what had happened. I had gone from 2020 to 1893 in a blink of an eye.

I did then what any rational, reasonable, and sane person would do at a time like this. I threw up. I was still leaning over a trash can heaving my guts out when the portal reopened. I grabbed the items I had collected and rushed through. At the last moment I turned for one last look back. I vowed to come back and visit here again. I might even see my grandparents there.

Scott gave me a look of revulsion as I handed him the flyer and other objects. "Really Don, five