“Welcome to Round Table on Prime Time Live,” four men and a woman sat at a table with a green screen behind them, the moderator speaking in a deep voice demanding respect. “Tonight, we discuss the recent events surrounding the time travel industry with our special guest, Tyler Hall of the New York Herald newspaper.”
The television people stared at the lone newsprint reporter, a small mousey man who wore wire-rim glasses in an age of corrective eye surgery. The staff of the show had done their best to make Tyler presentable, but it only achieved a stiff look with his hair combed over tight to his head.
As the moderator spoke, Tyler worked to concentrate, his thoughts hampered by the very nature of the discovery of time travel, events upon events upon events. He almost sighed in resignation. The chief editor of the Herald had required Tyler to attend this discussion, Hiram Bosch showing no mercy in his decision suggesting the actual power behind the Herald had demanded Tyler’s sacrifice. The reclusive John Miles, owner of the Herald, had decided, and it was Tyler’s duty to dance for the television idiots.
“To set the stage, we turn to Melisa Kirsch for a review of the genesis of the Retrograde Company.” The camera view changed to the blond woman dressed in a dark blue top with a conservative cut, a thin gold chain around her neck dropping to a cross, her hair framing a round face perfectly painted for this occasion.
“Thank you, Bob. The entire creation of time travel hinges on Doctor Ernst Veldt. A young Jewish refugee, Veldt fled Germany before Adolf Hitler came to power, arriving in the United States in nineteen thirty-six. Important people, including Einstein, claimed Veldt was a genius. He certainly had the traits; a kind of absentmindedness merged with brilliance.” Behind Melisa period images followed her report, showing Veldt standing with Einstein.
“Veldt’s idea was the infamous Philadelphia Project. The results of the experiment were hushed and classified ‘Top Secret, Eyes-Only’ with a seventy-year hold. Veldt himself traveled into obscurity, equaling that of his brainchild. He changed his study to the habits of indigenous wildlife of the Florida everglades.”
“We now know the experiment went seriously wrong.” Melisa said with obvious sarcasm.
“Veldt proposed creating an anti-radar device. In theory, the device was simple. Since radar emissions are an electrical pulse bouncing off the flat surfaces of an object, Veldt proposed building a magnetic field around the Eldritch to bend the radar pulses and create a hole to hide in. The Navy loaned the Light Cruiser Eldritch and the Philadelphia Navy Yard.” A graphic portraying Veldt’s theory and pictures of the Navy Yard entertained the watchers at home. “You could say they turned the Eldritch into a huge electric coil.”
“In October of nineteen forty-four they were ready to give the system a try. Twelve seconds after the device was engaged, the Eldritch disappeared from the radar scope of the chase ship Mendota, then the ship itself disappeared in a luminous fog that reportedly welled up from the ocean. At the time the Eldritch disappeared, a naval radio station in Norfolk, Virginia, was transmitting signals on a powerful beam. The Eldritch and its fog appeared in Norfolk harbor and glided towards the source of the signal. The effect of the magnetic field aboard the Eldritch destroyed the transmitter, and the Eldritch disappeared again.”
“How did it destroy the Norfolk transmitter?” the moderator asked, intrigued by the unknown. This was the first time he had heard all the facts. Rathent had collaborated with the United States Navy in allowing only a general view of the Philadelphia Project. Rathent’s motive had been personal; he wanted to limit access to the information that gave him the time leap technology. The navy wanted to limit their embarrassment.
Melisa paused, uncertain, her notes not with her.
“Basically, it was an overload. The Norfolk transmitter exploded.” Tyler said with an apologetic nod to Melisa. “That’s when the experiment went out of control.”
“In theory, they were attracted to a signal source, therefore all energy involved was traveling in a constant direction. When the Norfolk transmitter exploded, the Eldritch was left without direction. The ship was being drawn towards all the radio transmission sources on the East Coast of the continental United States.” She avoided a display of annoyance with incredible strength.
“If the technicians on the Eldritch had turned off the generators while the Eldritch was at Norfolk, it is likely they would have come out of the experiment unharmed. All the damage occurred when the ship disappeared again.” Once again, Tyler added humanity to the report. “Veldt and Somers realized some of this; Veldt reported the captain of the Eldritch tried to turn off the generators when they reached Norfolk. You can imagine the disorientation because of the sudden transport, unfortunately their reaction came too late. The Eldritch disappeared from Norfolk and floated, parts merging or coming loose. This was when the technicians manning the generators turned off the device, and the Eldritch reappeared at the initial experiment site. The casualties were horrible; men half in and out of metal floors and walls while several disappeared completely. The pictures taken by the navy were destroyed.”
There was an uneasy silence as the moderator determined how to regain control of the conversation while the audience considered what the photographs might show. “How did the Eldritch return to its original coordinates?” He asked to restart the report.
“Before Professor Veldt left the project, he wrote a paper containing several theories, the majority dealing with where the Eldritch went and how it got home.” Melisa replied a touch hastily. “One dominant theory is called the correct position in the continuum. He suspected the ship, and each person produced a field that held their molecules together and resisted the dispersing effect of the generated field. This ‘gravity’ also had a memory. Essentially, the Eldritch returned to the last place it had fully occupied outside the influence of the field, in a kind of boomerang effect. There was no way of determining precisely what had occurred, and the navy was very interested in hiding the entire affair. The security surrounding the project made a cover-up no real problem; eighty percent of the skeleton crew on the Eldritch were dead or incapacitated by the side effects of the accident; insane, traumatized, or suicidal.”
With a slight smile, Tyler hijacked the report again. “Everyone else involved held their silence or did not know enough to guess what had happened. Veldt left the physics arena. Who could blame him? But what they all missed was one important detail. By studying the time factors involved, they found the clocks on the Mendota and Eldritch did not match. Time on the Eldritch was two minutes behind the time on the Mendota; it was a curious development considering the clocks on both ships were synchronized prior to the experiment. The Eldritch had traveled in time and no one noticed.”
“Fifty-two years pass and guess who appears; Andrew Rathent, the owner of the largest television network in the world.” Melisa looked directly at Tyler as she spoke. “In the beginning, his motives were fairly pure; he was researching the Philadelphia Project as a hobby. At the time the accident was an urban legend, one of those stories everyone knew but could not prove, but it was Rathent who stumbled on Veldt’s name catalogued on a proposition paper in an obscure Washington file room.”
“Andrew Rathent pursued Veldt, who was now in his eighties and living in retirement near Orlando. Somehow Rathent persuaded Veldt to discuss the project. The facts were presented on television, causing such a stink that a congressional investigation took place. To appease Congress and the public, the Navy released the project files twenty-three years before the declassification date.”
“What Rathent found were the time factors and recognized it as an opportunity he could not leave alone. He hired Veldt at an exorbitant price and had the professor expand on his theories concerning the accident. Rathent saw the possibility of time travel and fully intended to use all his money in pursuit of the dream. From a capitalistic point of view, Rathent knew he could recoup every penny spent if he could build a time machine. The profits would be incredible. He could go back in time and gather artifacts that would catch a fancy price or he could go ahead in time and get new technology.”
“I thought Eldritch Control said no one could go forward in time.” The man opposite Melisa broke his silence. His curiosity was too great.
“In a sense, it’s true,” the visiting scientist replied before Melisa; his response was annoyingly slow. “Eldritch Control went to the extreme for a good reason. It would be disastrous if people went forward in time to gather technology. We might get stuck in a loop of non-creativity and eventually become dependent on research generated by time leaps. Also, the future comprises millions of permutations; a time traveler would never know the true future of our planet. For instance; suppose a traveler goes forward to a specific date in the year twenty-twenty and loves the place so much he returns and what he finds in the next future is a world destroyed by nuclear holocaust...”
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“What?” the moderator blurted.
“On at least three occasions in recent history we stood on the brink of nuclear disaster; the Scorpion sinking, the Cuban missile crisis, and the collapse of the old Soviet Union. Fingers were on buttons waiting for the order to launch. That’s three futures among millions.” The scientist replied.
Tyler jumped in again, once again bringing humanity to the discussion. “Shortly before he died of natural causes, Veldt theorized the Eldritch must have traveled outside the continuum, outside the realm of time. He called this place the void, characterizing what he knew of the Eldritch’s journey; a place of darkness where the fabric of all matter loses cohesion. Nothing exists there for long. The void caused the damage to the Eldritch.”
“The device they created worked on the principle of a magnetic frequency sphere. Circles within circles.” Melisa followed Tyler’s lead, but the damage was done. She refused to look at him. “One sphere preserves the life form while the other affects the time leap. It all has to do with a level of physics I can’t even begin to understand. I see the leap device as a door to the void where the device moves in time by frequency changes, then inserts itself into a chosen time. To return to our time, the traveler reenters the void and turns off the outer field. The attraction theory pulls the traveler back to the proper time.”
“Where do we stand now?” the moderator asked, pushing the show forward.
The men remained silent, and Melisa resumed her report. “Rathent’s teams have leaped thirty-one times, progressing from snatch and grab missions to their latest recording of the Hindenburg disaster. With each new evolution in the time leap objectives, the potential for paradox increases. They are now placing observers with specific groups of predate society, which doubles the paradox risk.”
“Rathent has made hints the last few weeks concerning the next major leap; a maritime disaster involving a steamship, the Atlantic Ocean, losing over three hundred lives in a tragic mistake. The man would make a terrible poker player. He’s described three ships; the Athena, the Lusitania, or the Titanic. If you think about it, it can only be the Titanic. It would be a media coup of unprecedented proportions.”
“Mr. Tyler, I believe we have entered your area of expertise,” the moderator turned to the reporter. “What was the reaction to this information?”
“The collective governments of the world, represented by the United Nations, objected to the use of Rathent’s machine. They fear possible disruption of history and, by extension, our present day. Through the UN, the World Court placed restrictions on the use of time machines. The UN took up the task of devising an action team assigned to access all time travel projects and assess the danger. This led to implementing a security force targeting the observation and control of all facets of time projects. They named the action team after the greatest known time disaster; Eldritch Control.”
Tyler talked at a comfortable pace without notes, the data set in his mind by living the issue for several years. “Presently, Eldritch Control employs roughly two hundred and forty thousand personnel; the vast majority are paramilitary security troops, while the rest are scientific, research, and administrative. They have unrestricted access to all time projects and subsidiary production houses. They enter every room, monitor every project from close at hand, and perform personal history and psychological profiles on all personal. All potential time travelers go through a screening process that makes the astronaut program look pale in comparison.”
“All the Eldritch Control people I have met are very capable of the task. What Eldritch Control says, goes, or the project is shut down. They report to, but are not subservient to, the General Council. No pressure can apply to Eldritch Control without the culprit being revealed to all UN representatives, the world press, and harsh fines levied.”
“Why didn’t the UN ban time travel?” the moderator asked the obvious question.
“The elimination of time travel is impossible now that it is a reality; like nuclear weapons.” Tyler replied with a shrug. “Many countries, including the United States, would have, and did, create black hole projects aimed at the militarization of time travel. Just think about it; what if our government sent people to the past to eliminate Lenin or people who made our lives troublesome? The possibilities were enough to give any sane person nightmares.”
“After the initial uproar died down, some smart people at the UN decided the best thing to do was to keep a tight grip on the reins and allow the projects to continue in the light of day. Control is maintained though Eldritch Control, and a specific request for time leap procedure in the UN requiring at least three-quarters affirmative vote in the General Council with no absentia.”
Melisa nodded in agreement. “Eldritch Control listed their priories in terms of the dangers involved with a time leap. The list is long, but I’ll tell you a few. First is the need to watch for potential paradox. A paradox, by Eldritch Control definition, is any action that can alter the known time line. This places a drastic restriction on all time leap activity.”
“Second; all time leap facilities are set away from inhabited sites, or work with a safety program that encompasses site security, redundancy control, safety interlocks and time energy backlash safeties.”
“Third; Eldritch Control has hired three independent analysis companies to study the history of projected time leap objectives. Total background information is the design of this function. Without adequate information, a leap becomes dangerous. All three companies have to sign off on the final draft document. There can be no disagreement or the leap is rejected.”
“Four; all time travelers are limited strictly to observation. They can take no action to influence a past event. Violators are subject to the penalty of law, up to and including the death penalty.”
“Last; Eldritch Control maintains a tight-fisted control of all time travel related machinery complete to minor subassemblies. All time device design specifications and blueprints are numbered, logged, and guarded. Use of these documents are made by petition.”
“As much as we dislike Rathent he has proven himself a genius using coordination and foresight.” The odd man out revealed himself to be from a rival television corporation with his simple statement. “Rathent is the only person to foment a profitable use of the time leap restrictions placed by the UN. An example of his technique is last Friday’s display of the Hindenburg disaster. Rathent is making a fortune performing a life size display at Lakehurst and other prominent cities. At present, Rathent is the only supplier of this type of reporting.”
Tyler lifted his hand slightly from a resting position on the table. “This seems like an ideal condition until you add the collective voting process of the UN. To state it simply, the member countries are the weakest elements in the control system. Countries can have ulterior motives, or ministers and cabinets can be bribed. All they need to do is agree for a price, and Eldritch Control is required to safeguard an illegal activity.”
“Of course, Eldritch Control can reject a time leap on the criteria I have already covered, but a rejection does not mean a project is shelved. The project leaders simply must change the leap parameters until Eldritch Control accepts the project.” Melisa seemed to thaw toward Tyler.
“I point out the Hindenburg project. The original leap content was rejected twice; once for excessive personal on the timeline, and once for their desire to use aerial platforms to record the overhead view. Eldritch Control could reform the project to acceptable guidelines, but by accident, a member of Rathent’s team altered events of that day; Robert Maxwell ordered fire-fighting equipment moved from a hanger to a spot next to the crash.” Tyler remembered standing in the bowl of fake flames and repressed a shiver.
“How do we know he changed the timeline?” the moderator asked.
Tyler spoke after a pause and a glance at Melisa. “Each traveler carries prerecorded packs containing detailed historic data. Each Eldritch Control security officer involved in the leap carries a complete data pack of the event to be observed and a rough highlight of later history. It’s incredible the amount of details these people memorize in the event’s familiarization. The Hindenburg transcript was over one thousand pages long; a member of the Hindenburg team told me Maxwell could quote the transcript verbatim. But we’re still living in a timeline that is marginally altered from the original.
“How much were we altered?” the moderator leaned forward, adding intensity.
“Research of the data carried by the travelers and comparison to known history show no fault of dramatic proportion. This supports Veldt’s hypothesis; time is resistant to change of the known continuum. No one is willing to find out how resistant time is to change. The general feeling among the travelers is the less the effect on the timeline, the better.”
“Which brings us to the present moment,” the moderator observed with satisfaction. The crisis had been diverted. “We are told there are dangerous problems occurring with the UN. Please continue, Mr. Hall.”
“My contact at the UN told me Rathent’s proposition is being rammed through the General Assembly and bribes are flowing. As for the content of the proposal, I don’t know. Everyone is afraid of being fingered for a leak. But I can give you an educated guess; the money is the key factor. Why spend the money to run a straight observation of the sinking? Rathent only needs to camouflage a ship to nineteen-twelve configurations and sit a mile away from the sinking; three ships if he wants a full holographic view. I think Rathent wants to put people aboard the Titanic.”
“They can’t do that,” Melisa replied quickly. “Eldritch Control will stop them.”
“Not if it’s incorporated into the proposition with specific UN approval.” Tyler replied deadpan. He was certain any chance of a date with Melisa was now lost. He smiled at the woman.