Sci-fi with a purpose, specifically, time-travel with a message. Future scientists plan to time-travel to Eden to prevent the fall and thus put an end to all evil and disease in the world. But they can only travel 200 years, more or less, at a time.
Excerpt
Chapter 1 The Idea
The year is 2025. The possibility of time travel has been theoretically proven and is accepted without question by thescientific community at large, although it has yet to be demonstrated by actual experience. The world is standing on tiptoe. Today is Friday, June 1, the date set for the annual meeting of the World Scientific Society. This particular meeting is destined to be different from past meetings. Its outcome will affect certain of the society’s members in ways that they can not now imagine. The revolutionary events detailed here will all happen as a direct result of a simple question which is about to be asked by the chairman Mr. John Sterghean of Switzerland. After the group has chatted idly for some time about various diseases illnesses and problems, he suddenly strikes the gavel on the table and clears his throat. When everything is silent, he speaks.
“Gentlemen, we have been discussing various individualdiseases, illnesses and problems. But let me set before you aquestion which is crucial to them all. Gentlemen, what do yousee as the main cause of disease and evil in the world?”
The members sit in silence, each one pondering the answer to the question. The group includes Walter Bryant from Germany, William Nifang from Japan, Kerry Nadine from Saudi Arabia, David Sung from China and Allen Daniel Cohen from the U.S.A. All of them have given their life to thebetterment of mankind through scientific pursuit.
It is Cohen who finally speaks. “It seems to me that the main cause of disease and evil in the world is sin.”
“And, just what do you mean by ‘sin’?” asks the chairman,smiling. “Please define your terms.”
“By ‘sin,’ I mean a failure to conform to the law and precepts of Almighty God.”
“I’m sure we would all agree with that,” responds thechairman. “We all believe in a God, although we may call himby different names. To you, he is JHWH; to Kerry, he is Allah; to Will, he is Buddha; and to David, he is Confucius. So then, my friends, we all agree with brother Daniel’s proposal, do we not?”
All nod in agreement. “But,” objects Walt, “this is ascientific gathering, not a theological one. I’m sure you have apoint.”
“I do,” affirms John, “and a very poignant one, if you’ll justbear with me. But, where did this failure to comply, this ‘sin’ as you call it, originate?”Mr. A. Daniel Cohen thinks for a moment and then reacheshis hand into his coat pocket. “Gentlemen, if I may…” He pulls out a pocket edition of the Hebrew Old Testament. “Allow me to offer a rough translation.”John nods in approval and Daniel begins translating.
“Now the serpent was the smartest of all the beasts. And he said to the woman, ‘Does God really say you should not eat of every tree in the Garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said we shall not eat of, neither touch it, lest we die.’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘you shall not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it you’ll be like gods’…And the woman took the fruit of the tree and gave also unto her husband and they ate.”As Daniel translates, John notices the light of recognitiondawning on the faces of the others.”Ah, yes,” affirms Walt. “I remember that. It’s part of the Edocument, I believe.”"It’s from the Torah,” asserts Kerry.”Ah! We have some sort of story like that in our ancientJapanese literature,” says Will.”Chinese, likewise,” agrees David.”But, the point?!” objects Walt.John smiles broadly. “The point, my friends, is simply this:What do you think can be done a
bout the situation?”"What do you mean?”"What I mean is, do you think, in the light of our presentknowledge, that we could possibly do anything to change thesituation?”There is a brief moment of silence, and then David speaks.”Well, in the light of our present knowledge of time travel, Isuppose we could possibly attempt to go back to that time and warn the people involved so they never make the fatal mistake. And then, everything would be different.”"Exactly!” exclaims John.”But,” protests Daniel, “time travel has not been fullyproven as yet—that is, it hasn’t been tested.”"Perhaps,” suggests John, “because there hasn’t beenenough of a motive, yet.”
“But,” objects Walt, “even if it is possible to go back in time, we don’t know how far back we could go, or even if we could control our landing point. Suppose we land just after this fall you read about, and can’t go back to the time before it.”
“My friends,” affirms John, “the question of controlling thelocal destination of time leaps is what I’ve been working on for the past five years, and I believe I’ve finally gotten it pretty well figured out. You simply vary the intensity of the horizontalthrust in accordance with the calculated rotation of the earth inrelation to the time platform. The temporal locator works pretty much the same way. But, so far, with our present thrustcapabilities, it seems it would only be possible to go back 200years more or less in one leap.”
“So,” observes Will, “we’d have to go back in leaps of 200years each. And, at the next to last jump, we’d make thecalculations, and set the coordinates in order to arrive at ourexact destination point.”
“Exactly! And with the right calculations and the rightsettings, the time and location could be controlled within a fewdays and a few feet. By setting the dial enough ahead of ourdesired time goal, we’d give ourselves a good margin of error.”
“Sounds like you’ve really thought this thing through,”observes Walt.
“I certainly have. I’ve been waiting for this meeting topresent this idea.”
“But, even if we test it and we find it works,” asserts Kerry, “if we were to send someone back in time, there’s a goodpossibility they might not return. We should all be aware ofthat.”
“The question is, my friends,” John’s voice rings out loudand clear, “whether we see the goal as being worth the risk.Think of it, my friends! Think of being able to change thecourse of world history—being able to eliminate all sickness,disease and evil—to make it as though it never happened.”
“Do you really think we could do it?”
Again, John’s voice is strong and assertive. “If there is a chance that it can be done, wouldn’t it be worth trying? It would be like ushering in Paradise!”Well, I guess it does deserve a try. But where would we getthe money for such a project?” asks Walt, who has been waiting for a break in the conversation to insert this matter ofpracticality. “We could each contribute something, but how farwould that go?”"We will have to find some financial backing fromsomewhere,” agrees David.Daniel’s face, which had been drawn in thought, suddenlylights up. “How about that wealthy financier, Mark Lewis?He’s interested in matters of this sort.”"But do you think he’d be willing to back such a project asthis?”
“We’d have to do our best to convince him of the usefulnessand feasibility of our plan.”
“Well, then,” John strikes the gavel again. “Let’s try to workout the details first, and then adjourn to the house of MarkLewis.”
All of them agree. After several hours of concentrated effort,they have a fairly workable plan in hand.
Chapter 2 The Plan
As they approach the huge brick house, they are still talkingamong themselves, obviously excited, like children on their first trip to the circus.
“Think of it! Being able to go back and visit the various erasof history!”
“What a thrill!”
“Perhaps we would have done it anyway, sooner or later, forthe pure thrill of it all. But now we have a reason—a purpose,in addition.”
“You say we can go back 200 years in one leap?”
“Give or take 50 years based on our present knowledge. But,perhaps with the application of more force, we could increasethe distance slightly.”
“We could make it a fact-finding tour as well, to note anyunwritten details of historical interest we may stumble across.”
“Who knows what new insights we might discover!”
………………
Chapter 4
The three men push open the door of the cylinder and step out. They are stepping into what is for them, in one sense, unfamiliar territory, but in another sense, a page out of history.
Copyright 2008 James M. Becher. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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