Only Time Will Tell

Only Time Will Tell

Ever wonder, is time travel a reality?

Can the technology be developed to allow man to return to a past time?  Is it possible to travel to an earlier time-- to change a long past event, affecting the present?

Could you travel into your future?  Has the future already been written?  Or is time travel merely a fantasy born of a disorganized mind?


*******

Sir Fredrick Applegate postulated his theory while engaged in a weekly gathering at Stephen Rosenthal’s home.  Stephen, Sir Fredrick’s long time, best friend and new acquaintances, Harry Birchfield and Richard Tunney, old friends of Stephen, were present for Sir Fredrick’s announcement.  The declaration of his greatest discovery--the unlocking of the secrets of time travel, was made while engaged in a friendly game of billiards.

The announcement was met with great laughter and merriment.  Only Stephen seemed receptive to the idea that, due to Sir Fredrick’s genius, time travel could be possible, although he also seemed somewhat bemused by the idea.  Sir Fredrick was determined to show them.

*

Tomorrow, he told them.  Tomorrow would be the proof.  Tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., they agreed.  Tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. they would meet once again at Sir Fredrick’s home.  Tomorrow, a word soon to be utterly meaningless as would be yesterday, before or after.

Mad, they had called him.  Insane.  His so called friends.  No, that’s unfair.  Truly they were friends.  Weak of spirit, lacking in imagination, bereft of an inventor’s soul, but friends nonetheless.

*

Sir Fredrick admired his creation, the thing that had driven him these oh so many months.  Mad?  Insane?  His great experiment would for all and ever silence his doubters.

Months he had toiled in his study slowly pealing away the layer upon layer of mysteries in his quest for the true knowledge of ‘Time.’  Finally, at the core he found the essence, the glue that held all of creation together, the ‘Essence of Time.’  For months he hardly ate, slept only when driven to utter exhaustion.  The all-consuming need to unravel the ultimate secret had indeed driven him to the precipice of madness, but he had defied the universe to become its master - the ‘Time Equation,’ so gloriously simple yet so divinely complex.  He was truly the ‘Master’ of time itself.

Months more carefully building the machine in his basement that would carry him to the very beginning and the end of all things that ever were and ever will be.  So carefully, so lovingly he had hand crafted each piece, each part, the intricate geometries of his machine perfectly conforming to his beautiful equation.

Sir Fredrick would soon begin his journey, his quest, the greatest adventure ever conceived by man.  He laughed at the very thought.  Soon.  When is soon?  Perhaps he would wait until next week or next year or last year to keep his appointment with his friends tomorrow.

Sir Fredrick connected the batteries that powered the ‘Time Machine.’  He checked every delicate control.  For his test he would set the Time Machine to propel him ½ hour into the future.  How could he know if the extraordinarily sensitive controls were properly calibrated?  How could he be certain he had actually traveled only 30 minutes and not one day and 30 minutes or a million years into the future?  How?

The computer in his study, of course, the computer would not only show the time but also the date.  The computer’s time was 12:45 a.m., May 21, 2008.  Exactly the same as the time indicated by the clock he had mounted on his basement wall.  He would begin his journey at exactly 1:00 a.m.  If he were successful he would arrive at exactly 1:30 a.m., May 21, 2008.

Sir Fredrick climbed into the seat of his time machine.  He carefully set the controls for exactly 30 minutes, resisting the urge to advance himself into the far future.  He donned his smoked protective goggles and closed the canopy.  Slowly he advanced the time vortex lever forward.  The time vortex wheel gradually came up to speed.  Wave after wave of time itself was now washing over the Time Machine in terrific strobes.

Sir Fredrick experienced pain and pleasure, fear and exhilaration.  The klaxon sounded.  The end of the journey reached.  How long?  For Sir Fredrick there was no way to know.  The passage of time was completely beyond his comprehension.  Did his trip take an hour, an instant or millennia?  He could not tell.

What would happen once he disembarked his machine?  Would he truly be 30 minutes into his own future or would he simply cease to exist from all futures and all pasts?  The growing fear now clutched at his spirit.  He must not falter now!  No matter the outcome, he had come too far to turn back.  With his last ounce of courage Sir Fredrick opened the canopy and stepped out.

He was still Sir Fredrick Applegate.  He was here.  He was now so he must also be past.  The time.  What is the time?  He looked to the wall clock for the answer.  1:31—yes!  But he must check the computer.

He rushed to his study.  1:32 a.m., May 21, 2008.  Success.  Yes.  Complete and total success.

Success yes, but with a price, Sir Fredrick now knew the effects of cheating time.  Not any definable symptom, just the uneasiness of knowing he had broken the bonds and had propelled himself a full one half hour into the future.  Now a man separated from humanity.  Alone.  So alone.

His experiment now half complete, Sir Fredrick once again set the time control for 30 minutes.  This time however he would retrace his steps sending himself back to his own time.  At exactly 2:00 a.m. he would begin the process that would send him backwards to 1:30 a.m., May 21, 2008.

Sir Fredrick once again climbed into the seat of his time machine.  He donned his smoked protective goggles and closed the canopy.  Slowly he this time pulled the time vortex lever backward.  The time vortex wheel gradually came up to speed.  Wave after wave of time once again bathed the Time Machine.

The pain and pleasure, the fear and exhilaration--the klaxon sounded, the end of the journey reached.  Sir Fredrick had complete confidence in his calibrations.  This time, just as before, the passage of time was completely beyond his comprehension.  Did his trip take just an instant or eons?

He opened the canopy.  The clock.  The clock showed 2:31 a.m.  NO!  Impossible!  The time machine was perfect.  This could not be.  Quickly he made his way to the study.  The time on the computer was 2:32 a.m., May 21, 2008.  Instead of taking him backward in time, he had now advanced to one full hour into his own future.  His unease increased, now taking on the form of panic as he realized the possibility--the possibility that he may forever be trapped.  Trapped forever in the future.

Frantically he searched through his notes--through all his careful calculations.  No, there could be no error.  The time machine worked perfectly sending him into the future.  It must also work perfectly sending him into the past.  His ‘Equation,’ as in Einstein’s own elegantly simple equation defining the relationship of mass and energy, required only the speed of light as constant.  Simply change the constant’s sign and that which was forward must now reverse.  His own equation of course defined the pure nature of time and not mass or energy.  Duration, the primal bit, the smallest piece of time, was the key element.  Simply change the elementary duration and time travel was no longer theory but fact.  Reverse the constant and the possible journeys through time were limitless.  He had painstakingly pried the secrets of time from the universe using logic even the great Einstein could never have realized.  Time equaled duration times the speed of light squared.  It was as simple as that.  It must work. T = DC².

T = DC²

His equation was perfect.  Perfect.

On paper he duplicated his equation.  T = D * +C²

Perfect.  It perfectly described forward travel through time.

For the reverse travel he wrote.  T = D * -C²

He stared at his equation.  “A MINUS SQUARED!  NO, it cannot be!”  Sir Fredrick laughed.  His laughter grew.  It grew to the hysterical sobbing laughter of the truly insane.  “A minus squared,” he sobbed, the error glaring up from the paper, mocking him.  “Such a fool.  Such a fool I’ve been!”

The laughter slowly abated leaving only the tears--the tears flowing from his very soul.

I must destroy this terrible machine, he thought.  This insidious machine that can rob a man of his past, that can propel him into his own future, forever lost, with no hope of returning.  The Time Machine and all of his notes, every scrap of knowledge must be eliminated, completely.  No clue may remain.

He began at once dismantling his horrible creation.  Slowly piece-by-piece he destroyed all traces of its nature.  No one would ever be able to again cast himself into the hell he alone must face.  Forever living a full hour always in his own future, never able to return to his own time.

Hours had gone by.  Feverishly he worked.  It would not be long before his friends arrived.  The time he was to announce his great success.  But now, he must instead announce his great failure.  No, he could not.  He could never again even mention the Time Machine.  Never.  It must forever remain a secret.  A secret he may never reveal even unto his dying breath.

6:00 p.m.  He must hurry.  The stacks of notes, his drawings, his precious ‘Time Equation.’  Months of calculations, everything must be destroyed.  Sir Fredrick burned the many reams of paper in his fireplace.  Nothing left.  Nothing.  No, not nothing.  The computer remained.  It too held hints of the secret of time travel.  He was running out of time.  His friends would be shortly knocking at his door.  Quickly he removed the connections from the rear of the computer and placed it onto the fire still burning in the fireplace.

*

A knock at his door, they were here.  Sir Fredrick opened the door to welcome his friends into his home.

“Hey Freddy, man you look like you been rooting around in a trash dump,” Stephen said.

Almost in unison, Harry and Richard nodded and said, “Fred.”

Sir Fredrick thought, ‘it does not appear they notice the time displacement differential between themselves and myself.  Perhaps no one can see the difference.’

Sir Fredrick said,  “Please enter my dear friends.  I have been quite busy today.  Please help yourselves to refreshments while I attend to my most distressful appearance.”  And off to his bathroom he went.

After showering, Sir Fredrick heard his friends conversing in his dining room.  He did not intend to eavesdrop.  It simply was not a gentlemanly thing to do, but still he heard the conversation clearly.

*

Steve said, “Nah, Freddy’s all right.  Hey, I’ve known the guy for a long time.  He’s OK.  He just gets to doin’ these things once in a while.  He’ll stop once you guys quit paying attention to it.  Once he quits getting a rise out of people it’s not long before he gives it up.”

Harry said, “I don’t know.  I think he’s got more than a few loose screws.”

Rick joined in, “What’s this Sir Fredrick stuff all about anyway?  And that weird way he’s always talkin’, what does he do, stay up all night watchin’ old ‘B’ movies?”

Steve laughed, “Yeah, probably, old movies and TV shows.  Man, you think ‘Sir Fredrick’ is weird, you should have been around him when he was developing anti-gravity.  He was doin’ Spock AND Scotty, sometimes both at the same time.  Now that was weird.”

Harry said, “I still think he’s about ready for a rubber room someplace.”

Steve said, “Nah, he’s just a frustrated actor.  I think he just likes the reaction he gets pulling this stuff.  He’s probably had about enough.  He’ll be back to normal soon.  Till the next time anyway.”

Steve again laughed and said, “Boy, that perpetual motion one he did, now that was a real hoot.”

Rick said, “Look at this museum,” then asked, “How’d he get into a place like this?”

Steve said, “He inherited it six or eight years ago along with a lot of money.  I think it’s been in his family for like a hundred years or so.”  After a slight pause he continued, “You know, that might explain all his mad scientist routines.  He’s never had to work a day in his life.  Might be bored, just wants a little excitement.”

Sir Fredrick understood exactly what he must do.  Acting.  Yes, he would act.  He would return to the role of Freddy.  He would keep the secrets of time travel as closely guarded as those of perpetual motion, anti-gravity and all those other great and disturbing discoveries he had made.

After pulling on fresh jeans and a tee shirt Freddy bounced out of the bathroom.  “Hey guys, there’s plenty of beer in the frig.  Help yourselves.  I ain’t gonna carry it to ya.”  He picked up the telephone.  “I’m gonna order a couple pizzas.  Pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers and onions sound all right to you?  I ain’t got a pool table like old Stevo so I figured we could play a little poker.  That OK?”

He was Freddy.  He must be Freddy. He knew he must for all of humanity’s sake never ever let his guard down.  His was the responsibility to the universe to never reveal the strange and dangerous contents of his mind.  Freddy was back!

*

Will Freddy forever keep these secrets?  Will he remain Freddy?  Will his delusions lead him to again attempt solving another of the great mysteries of the universe, or will the strange and dangerous contents of his mind some day consist of more sinister matters than science fiction?

Only time will tell.