Just in the Neck of Time™: The First Compendium

By Graham Joseph Gerni

The idea behind using the descriptive writing phrase 'just in the nick of time' was decided in my focus of my own neurological malformation and original creativity. The story follows the actions of a Haredi Jew in the 24th century and his disability to not be able to move his hands independently of one another; if one moves a certain way, the ot

• Language: English
• Publisher: GJG Books
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088237649

Graham Joseph Gerni

Graham Joseph Gerni lives in the Bloomington area and has until a brief interim when his father moved his medical practice to a small town around Richmond, Indiana. After the Ford Factory closed, the most contributable wage provider for the town, moved back to Bloomfield, Indiana. Mr. Gerni was born with the malformation Yosef Gershom is told to have along with the disabilities that come with it. Mr. Gerni often wanted recompense for the fact that he had such a disability and decided to write a novel about someone he could relate to. Graham Gerni has a Master's of Library Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also working on a sequel to the work that you may be reading.

Book preview

Graham Gerni

Final Draft JNT

First published by GJG Publishing House 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Graham Gerni

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

First edition

ISBN: 9781088237649

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

Publisher Logo

Contents

I. PART ONE

1. Chapter 1: The Man in Black

2. Chapter 2: Yosef Gershom

3. Chapter 3: Doctor Dalleigh

4. Chapter 4: Life on Mars?

5. Chapter 5: Preliminary Experiments

6. Chapter 6: First Results

7. Chapter 7: Talia Dineb

8. Chapter 8: Dalleigh Confesses

9. Chapter 9: Isaac and Hannah’s Wedding

10. Chapter 10: Dalleigh Escapes!

11. Chapter 11: Dalleigh shows Yosef the Recording: 2353

12. Chapter 12: Ninilay and Yosef First Meet

13. Chapter 13: Getting Home From the Run

14. Chapter 14: The Picnic

15. Chapter 15: Secret Business

16. Chapter 16: Hannah’s Memory

17. Chapter 17: The Hunt

18. Chapter 18: The Proposal

19. Chapter 19: Ninilay Learns about Judaism

20. Chapter 20: A Temporal Quandary

21. Chapter 21: The Mission

22. Chapter 22: Ninilay Assists the MDF

23. Chapter 23: Ninilay Meets with the Fleet Admiral

24. Chapter 24: Heading Out

25. Chapter 25: The Journey

26. Chapter 26: The Undiscovered Planet

27. Chapter 27: Whomst Summons the Ancient Ones?

28. Chapter 28: Dalleigh Studies the God Component

29. Chapter 29: The Journey to Gamyadoved

30. Chapter 30: The Symphonic Museum

31. Chapter 31: The Attack on Gamyadoved

32. Chapter 32: From Gamyadoved to Mars

33. Chapter 33: Ninilay is Aggrieved

34. Chapter 34/Histories 3

35. Chapter 35: On Intellect

36. Chapter 36: Passionate Opinions

37. Revolutionary Jews in the New World

38. Chapter 38: The Kitos War

39. Chapter 39: The Man in Black Full Circle

40. Chapter 40: Pana’im Al Pana’im

II. PART TWO

41. Chapter 1: Delivered Without Dalleigh

42. Chapter 2: Ninilay Weeps

43. Chapter 3: IO

44. Chapter 4: Time Dalleigh

45. Chapter 5: Dalleigh is Definitely not a Sheep

46. Chapter 6: Dalleigh’s Role

47. Chapter 7: Stealing the Snark

48. Chapter 8: Ninilay’s Return Home

49. Chapter 8: The Other Reality

50. Chapter 9: Pana’im Pana’im Again (?)

51. Chapter 10: Ninilay’s Father Returns

52. Chapter 11: The Next Morning

53. Chapter 12: Ninilay goes to Sirius II

54. Chapter 13: Sirius II

55. Chapter 14: And the Troops Keep Marching On

56. Chapter 15: While my Star Rover Gently Weeps

57. Chapter 16: For Hell has no Fury like a Protective Parent

58. Chapter 17: A Snark Reality

59. Chapter 18: Astral Projection

60. Chapter 19: And in Truth…

61. Chapter 20: The Return

62. Chapter 21: The Funeral

About the Author

I

Part One

1

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

Just in the Neck of Time™

A Novel by Graham Joseph Gerni

Copyright © 2023 by Graham Gerni

Part One

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

Entering the doorway, a tall, lithe man made his way across the room. He was clothed in a black turtleneck, leather shoes, and black trousers and blazer. The all-black ensemble bolstered the man’s impressions of inhuman proportions. The length of his limbs and his thinness made his height more imposing and intimidating. His lean features- especially evident in the pointedness of his nose- were intensified with the anachronistic adornment of a pair of gold, pince-nez reading glasses that made him appear quite sinister.

He approached his two colleagues, Miller and Urey, two agents of the Inter-Sol Headquarters. The two were sitting in a control room filled with highly , technologically advanced locks and a crude soundboard. The soundboard was crude in that it did not have the common complexities as well as user-friendly designs that to most in the music industry of the 24th century with which would be accustomed. It was designed simply for interrogation. The control room more importantly was endowed with a two-way mirror. The Man in Black entered the interrogation room.

In sight of the two-way mirror, they saw a man handcuffed to a table with a single halogen light intensely lit above his head. It was a small, almost imperceptible form of torture. The two men behind the two-way mirror examined their agent and the rather harmless, scholarly-looking man hand-cuffed to the table under the halogen light. They spoke to each other in a very somber tone.

‘You have to be kidding me! That man, he doesn’t look like he would harm a fly, Miller remarked."

Believe it; that man is a maniac! We had to have his eye amputated and refitted with a bionic replacement just so we could break through his biometric securities and he didn’t even tell us about the Bertillon encryption mechanism! Urey exclaimed. He sacrificed his eye without considering that if he cooperated, he could keep it. We can’t even get in the lab, the bastard!

Well, he certainly fooled me. His prosthetic seems pretty natural. I could get to liking that if I were to lose an eye.

‘It wouldn’t be a complete loss. Urey suggested, You can actually see with greater acuity than most natural eyes.’

I guess that’s a consolation if I ever were to lose one, Miller sighed, But I am rather attached to my natural ones.

(It goes without saying that the optometric sciences have improved 300 years from the publication of this novel.)

The man hand-cuffed to the table was of South African extraction. His father was a Xhosa Afrikaans and his mother a German Jew. His caramel-colored skin was testament to this union discounting a few other features that emphasized his appearance. He sported a dark black, slicked-back, quaffed swarf of hair and had deep brown eyes. The eyes portrayed a very immutable and baffling feeling. From the look of them, there was both a raging fire and a smoldering intellect.

The name of the man is Dr. Schwartz Dalleigh. He was a highly decorated and celebrated neurosurgeon on Mars Colony. His locale was the Inter-Sol Headquarters. His crime was illegal and unethical experimentation on human subjects.

This was undoubtedly a surprise to all those who knew him, though they knew of a certain passion project he had been undergoing for a little over a decade with a young man named Gershom. He had been the caretaker of this Gershom since he (Gershom) was 14 years old. The honesty of Dalleigh’s innovations was without dispute within the University projects board.

Dalleigh found the whole situation of he being captured by Inter-Sol agents was damn peculiar, the prisoner thought. He hadn’t lived on Earth in 28 years and even then in Johannesburg, not Burlington.

The confrontation began as the thin man in black and glasses finally came through the sealed hydraulic double doors walking in a confident, strident-gate with a hint of a limp that supposedly could have been incited by an old injury. He then sat across from the accused.

The man sitting handcuffed to the table’s first thought was why the man was wearing his outmoded sight-aid, seeing that applied gene therapy for the epigenome had corrected sight issues for at least a century at this point. The doctor concluded that they were some sort of family heirloom either worn for style or reverence. It was what was behind the glasses however that was more frightening. The eyes of The Man in Black were chimeric. The colors seemed to shine at different times. Sometimes, especially during dark thoughts, one would see the brown eye darken, and in cheerful times the blue eye would give a glint of glee or humor.

The Man in Black sat down and unlocked his tablet that then projected a 3D file of the man at the table.

Dr. Schwartz Dalleigh, The Man in Black mused, Do you know why we have extradited you here to Earth?

I have an idea, the neurologist returned, "Ethical infractions in regard to Earth Laws concerning the experimentation on a human being."

That is a correct statement of your singular crime, The Man in Black replied, but why you are here is a different matter. We want you to recount your story concerning why you carried out these experiments and what you have learned. We are in the midst of deciding if these actions require imprisonment or at least a revocation of your medical license.

Dr. Dalleigh did not even wince.

My expenses were not funded by the Earth Authority and ethics codes of experimental implementation are different on Mars Colony. Dalleigh said defensively.

We are aware of that, but Gershom is an Earth Citizen. The Man in Black objected. We know you and your scientifically elite utopia up there think they are above the law but the line is drawn here!

The taciturn doctor gave the agent a calming look and deflated the obvious posturing the man was trying to employ.

He is not pressing charges, I know. Dalleigh trailed off. Also, Gershom is 25 years old, he can make his own choices.

Yes, but you started your experiments with him when he was a minor, 11 years ago.

Dalleigh tapped the table and looked impatient. And then began again.

By your obvious lack of uniform and procedure, I can divine that you’re not an usual Earth Authority Law Enforcement Agent. Dalleigh countered slowly, "Considering the nature of my work, your government is only trying to intimidate me in order for me to share my research now before I can do some real damage.."

The Man in Black removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

I should have known we couldn’t keep up this front for long. A man capable of your vision would undoubtedly be untenably perspicacious.

So, who exactly are you? Dalleigh retorted.

That is none of your concern. The Man in Black scoffed. Just tell us from the beginning how you interfaced with Gershom and where you have hidden him.

That is a very involved account. I don’t know if I can relay it all without notes.

‘We have the time to get to both of those issues. The Man in Black reassured If you cooperate, we could retrieve your documents from your lab on Mars Colony. The Man in Black continued There will be no admissions of the experiments in court, of course, most of your work is labeled as top secret."

Dalleigh gawked a bit. My work was meant to expose lies in history!

The Man in Black chuckled, History is what we say it is. And the future too,

‘‘But through the neural interface provided by Gershom’s neck malformation, we are able to actually see events seen through his ancestors!" Dalleigh exclaimed

Yes, and it is by that exploitation that landed you in this position, Dr. Dalleigh. The Man in Black continued. Your mad scientist game had to come to an end sooner or later. You should have known there would have been legal disparities in what you were doing. So why don’t you just tell us how you did it and where you have hidden him?

"Bring me the notes and if you are inclined to realize the profundity of this method and how this was accomplished, you will undoubtedly release the videos to the public. You can find some of my research in my office at my on-campus housing. ‘I teach courses too, you know.’’

The Man in Black looked quizzical. "You recorded yourself opening up a child’s spinal cord, filling him with drugs and putting a laser in his brain to stimulate memories, and you claim you care about the well-being of children by teaching them…’’

Dalleigh was infuriated by this. The means of my experiments are much more involved than that and the ends undoubtedly are the achievement of this millennium!

That’s a pretty big claim the Man in Black whistled, if it’s true I guess it would at least be ground-breaking, but beyond that I don’t think it would be a viable means of changing a whole zeitgeist of history as you claim. What you have at your campus housing will be insufficient, we need your algorithms to get into your lab…

Dalleigh ignored the request for the encryptions and raged on. You have no idea! Dalleigh protested, I swear to you I calibrated the time differential and can even prove which ancestor the memories belong to! And I also know that if I were to give you the encryption codes, you would surely destroy my lab!

The fate of your lab contends if we find anything valuable in your research, which is highly doubtful in my opinion.

You’ll see, Dalleigh seethed, "You’ll see. Your resolve will be broken by mine. Your views will be altered to the point of irrecognition of your current ones. ‘What has happened in that lab is like opening up a book into the past and you will not in all ways be happy with what you find. It is forced perspective; new, perfect resource material. The singular individual is rendered irrelevant in consideration to his ancestors. No archive can retrieve this information as accurately as with how this method avails seeing as it is the position of the individual in the historical timeline that we maintain.’’

The Man in Black stammered ‘‘We have archives of scanned historical documents that could lead to these revelations. Why would we need to go through all of this technological harangue to gain accurate research when we have impressions of it in print and on digital media?’’

‘‘I do not think that my efforts were in vain. I set out to do something and I did it. I am the man who invented a way back in time. And according to our modern knowledge of physics, this is the only way to do it.’’

Your physics may be different from mine. The Man in Black chuckled, You have no idea what you’re dealing with.

Physics subsumes all reality and it applies to everyone and everything! Dalleigh objected. One’s perspective is the same to all inertial frames of reference. Dalleigh paraphrased Einstein’s first law of Special Relativity (1905).

I suppose that may be true, but what of it? The Man in Black coughed, I think we’re done here for now.

Running away because you’re at your wit’s end? Dalleigh gloated.

No, I am just going to get lunch. The Man in Black reported. Something will get along to you eventually.

Will I be seeing more of you? the doctor asked.

Oh, My dear, sweet Doctor Dalleigh, The Man in Black laughed, I think you’ll be seeing a LOT of me.

2

Chapter 2: Yosef Gershom

On November 22, 2323 or the 23rd of Cheshvan, 6084 on the Hebrew calendar, Yosef Gershom was born; and with that birth, a grand new story. The Haredi community into which he was born rejoiced at a new member of the faith. Eight days later on the 30th of November or the 2nd of Kislev, his bris was performed and he became a full-fledged member of the community.

The boy seemed normal in every way, despite a slight wavering in his left eye that corrected itself in a few weeks. His parents did not worry much for him despite some of his strange behaviors. A particularly strange feature was the missing of some important developmental landmarks such as crawling. What they didn’t know is that he had a neurological malformation at the base of his neck that prevented him from moving his hands independently (if one is commanded in the brain to move a finger, the finger on the opposite hand would receive the same signal and would resultantly move.) To move around without crawling, the boy would lie on his back, move his head up and to the side to look and see where he was going and push his legs to propel himself across the floor. Doing this on carpet caused the sides of his head to become bare. His parents didn’t think anything of it, they just thought he was a silly baby. He would eventually learn to walk. A bit later than most, and with much more effort. His coordination would prove to be somewhat insufficient for many tasks, but he would never relegate himself to be anything short of ordinary. And once people started putting him in that position- pointing out there was something wrong with him- he became terribly distraught. This came around the time he was twelve. A behavior in which was most foreshadowing was that he grimaced while cutting with safety scissors because his other hand was trying to hold the paper and trying to do two separate things with his hands was excruciatingly painful, but he would complete the tasks and all throughout his Cheder education, not much else worried his teachers. He did have a stutter, though. He shed it after some years. He trained himself by whispering his sentences to himself before speaking. This way he was sure of what he wanted to say. That later was extended into an inner-monologue so he could review the sentence without saying it outloud.

The Haredi community in 24th century Israel shared many of the same values and praxis as its contemporary counterpart. The Haredi, localized in the traditional part of Jerusalem, had a proprietorship of the Western Wall. This was the only proselytizing in which they engaged. They had a chanut in which a volunteer provided tefillin, tallit, and kippah (if needed). Even tourists that were of the more modern sects of Judaism still wore yarmulkes, especially if in Israel. The tourists or pilgrims would wash their hands in a fountain with a two-handled jug or notla. They would repeat the prayer inscribed on the fountain for the washing of hands. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu haOlam, asher b’mitzvah tov vitzivanu nehiladat al yadai’im. They would then take a pamphlet from the chanut’s kiosk, go up to the wall, fully dressed in the garb provided by the Haredis and daven with the long prayer under their breath. Many would put a written message in the cracks of the wall. They would then kiss the wall, walk twelve paces backward and turn around completing the ritual. Of course they would return the prayer items to the Haredi, but just the same, they had a holy, mystical experience. Only the Hasidim up to this point in Judaism focused on the mystical. Judaism is a compliance with the law or instructions of the Torah (torah literally means, in Hebrew, ‘instructions.’) It is supplemented with commentary and literature expanding on the law kept in documents called the Talmud. There are two main Talmudic texts. These are the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud. Neither was written in the place pertaining to the locations ascribed to their titles.

The Haredi have great pride over their lineage, claiming that at least one member of their ancestors had lived in Jerusalem at any known time between now and the time of King David. To be truthful, it is more likely that they could trace their family line to 1267 CE when Nachmanides or Ramban reentered the city after political stresses that had been prohibitive to entrance due to the Crusades. The 1096 massacre of the first crusade left virtually no Jews in Jerusalem. The trading of hands of the Holy City is tumultuous and surprisingly active politically.

There is substantiated evidence that there have been at least two families in Jerusalem or at least the kingdom of Jerusalem (which was a very narrow coastal kingdom not comprising what we would call Israel today but rather part of the Levante). This history made for the right-winged government of the mid-21st century incur a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising.. The European Jews felt a certain ‘right’ to the land of Israel. They seemed to contend that they had undergone such suffering that Adonai himself approved of the brutal violence and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian natives and even Mizrachi Jews and Arabic Israelis.

After a mass transition imposed on the community concerning procreation, the numbers of the Haredi had recovered from their population explosion in the 21st century. This community was managed by the Knesset to prevent the idea of privilege that took hold so long ago and rationalizing heinous murders. Yosef was unaware of this history and though the Haredis had been more forthcoming in their teaching of history, never taught it in their Cheder’im.

Yosef was able to conceal his disability for twelve years of his life. This was attributable to the insularity of the Haredi Jews and their impartial response to receive medical care if not absolutely necessary. When he was thirteen, at the same time preparing for his Bar Mitzvah-A Jewish rite of passage- the rabbinate was curious as to the strange movements of his hands. A team of doctors examined his neck malformation with MRI machines that were more accurate, energy efficient and reliable magnetic resonance imaging devices. What they concluded from this evidence was that he had a combination of malformations. A common one that had been discovered some 350 years ago was the Arnold Chiari malformation. But his malformation was more complex than that. What it really was was a congenital agenesis of the anterior arch of the atlas. They termed it as an Arnold Chiari Type V malformation appealing to the jargon of professional neurologists who would confuse the usual primary care physician otherwise. It could have just as well simply been called a Yosef Gershom malformation, but Yosef was too modest for that and declined the specificity of it being attributed to him, despite he being the only one who ever was discovered with the condition.

Yosef ran a gauntlet of talented neurologists, physicians and physical therapists. A few neuro-surgeons were consulted, but seeing the exposure of the brain stem through the bone prevented them from taking action in fear of paralyzing the boy. This excess of outside involvement made the Haredi society very hesitant of the family. The Rebe made the assessment that the malformation was an incurable Sapachas technically making Yosef Gershom a Matzorah making him ritually impure and would be removed from the community. The Gershoms were ostracized and the search for medical help for their son grew more frantic with the leaving of friends that affected not just Yosef but also his parents, Yitzhak and Hannah, as well as Yosef’s two brothers, Akiva and Yehudah.

Despite this, Yosef didn’t mind being different. He could do most of what other people could do. He had to be exceedingly cautious with his hands in feats such as washing the dishes, and folding laundry was difficult for him, but he could do it. A very difficult task for him was putting on gloves. Something that he regretted the