Temporal Gambit
Page 15
“So, how was the Hindenburg? Learn anything new from experiencing it in person?” As usual, Rosa was the most excited about hearing the details of the trip.
Climbing out of the pod, Martin felt a strange sense of déjà vu. He remembered having this conversation before, explaining that he hadn’t arrived at the Hindenburg site, but instead, something else had happened … but what exactly, he wasn’t sure. The memories were fading the way dreams do in the morning when one wakes up.
S.P. took his temperature and placed the blood pressure cuff on his arm. “Well, I’m happy to report that our traveler has returned as healthy as when he left us.”
Andrea stepped forward. “That’s good to hear. We can wait until tomorrow to check the cyber-log. Despite Dr. Hewes’ positive diagnosis, you look exhausted, Martin, the way you do after several games of racquetball.”
“What? What’s that about a game?” That word tickled something at the back of his mind, conjuring up an image of a strange, three-armed creature. Where had that idea come from?
Andrea tugged on his arm, leading him toward the door. “Martin, you are out of it. This is why I worry about you every time we send you off to the past. You need some rest. Let’s get you out of that damp suit. I’m taking you home.”
“Home?”
“Yes, that’s right, dear. You remember; where we live?” She reached over and kissed his cheek. “I’m sure Sadie will be delighted to see you.”
Epilogue
The two figures face one another in the Corridor.
“All goes according to plan.”
“Yes. Our latest gambit has played out well. Better than anticipated.”
“I agree. Quite entertaining.”
“Do you think he suspects anything?”
“I see no reason to believe so. He’s rather gullible.”
“So will the game continue?”
“That’s up to the Others to decide. It’s their move.”
“Very well. LOGOS, send me home.”
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The Ally turns away from his companion and vanishes, leaving Andrea to her thoughts, smiling.
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Afterword
This fictional story is based on historical facts. Here is some background information you may find interesting.
The Antikythera Mechanism
The device described as the world’s first analog computer actually exists. In 1900 sponge divers discovered an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Based on vases and statues made in the Rhodian style, some archaeologists speculate that the ship came from Rhodes, or at least had stopped there to pick up cargo along its route. Coins found in the wreck indicate by their dates that the ship sank sometime after 67 BC.
Soon after salvaging the device from the wreck, scholars recognized its unusual nature, but only decades later with advanced scanning methods could they peer through the layers of corrosion and begin to understand the intricate way in which over thirty gears worked to perform their complicated calculations. Several modern reconstructions of the device have been created, demonstrating its astronomical functions.
Thus, the astute reader may realize that Martin’s original timeline, in which the alien introduces the device into Roman society, is not our own. By placing the device on the doomed ship, our hero altered history to change it into our present reality, where divers would eventually discover the mechanism on the bottom of the sea.
The Maya Calendar
The Maya invented three systems for recording the passage of time. They had a sacred calendar of 260 days represented by twenty day symbols and thirteen numbers. These days combined with the solar calendar of 360 days (eighteen months of twenty days each) plus the five-day Wayeb period to round out the solar year of 365 days.
Together these two calendrical systems make up a 52-year cycle of unique days. Any particular day in that cycle is described with two terms: for instance, 12 Kimi (sacred), 9 Wo (solar). Each day is considered to have its own personality and soul.
In addition, the Maya use what scholars call the Long Count to identify each day by counting forward from August 11, 3114 BC (4 Ahau 8 Cumku). This date marks the beginning of the fourth creation as described in their mythical epic the Popol Vuh.
The Long Count groups days into five numbers. One day in this system is called a kin. One “month” of twenty days/kin is a uinal. One 360-day year or eighteen months is a tun. Twenty of these years or 7,200 days equals a k’atun. Finally, a bak’tun equals 144,000 days or 400 of their 360-day years. The five numbers are listed from largest to smallest time periods: 11.2.7.5.13 means 11 bak’tun, 2 k’atun, 7 tun, 5 uinal, 13 kin.
Dates are sometimes given in all three systems: long count, sacred, solar. Thus, the first Maya date which Martin sees (using Arabic numerals for the convenience of English readers) is 13.2.7.7.8 / 3 Lamat / 16 Ch’en, which in modern-era dating is September 14, 2059.
A single cycle of the Long Count calendar lasts thirteen bak’tuns or roughly 5,126 solar years, meaning that the original cycle since the Fourth Creation ended on December 21, 2012, or 13.0.0.0.0. This date indicated the start of a new era, not the world’s destruction as many non-Maya assumed at the time. Some Maya inscriptions refer to dates thousands of years beyond 2012.
Another interesting fact: The Mayan language family is one of five original writing systems in the world, along with Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Harappan (a language from the second millennium BC, still undeciphered but which influenced other languages like Sanskrit of ancient India).
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The War Scroll, the Copper Scroll, and the Manual of Discipline were found among thousands of scrolls hidden for two thousand years in caves near the Dead Sea. These were discovered beginning in 1946. Scholars differ on whether the collection was the product of the Essene community described by the ancient historian Josephus, but these people are a likely source of these writings.
At first, the Copper Scroll, discovered in 1952, could not be unrolled due to its corroded condition, so it was cut into pieces. The text lists sixty-four locations of hidden treasures of gold and silver, none of which have been found.
The War Scroll describes the battle between the forces of Light and Darkness, but probably the text should be interpreted symbolically, depicting spiritual rather than literal warfare. The historical Essenes were a non-violent sect who peacefully separated themselves from the main parties of Judaism in Jerusalem.
All quotes are taken from the War Scroll but are cited out of context for dramatic purposes.
Quantum Mechanics
The concept of quantum foam as infinitesimal fluctuations in spacetime comes from current scientific theory, which I do not pretend to understand.
Character Notes
Several characters are named after my distant ancestors.
David Barton fought in the American Revolutionary War.
Isaiah Jordan, the namesake of the “master of the universe” who shared a cell with Martin, was disfellowshipped by the Baptist church for joining another denomination in 1871. I thought it was fitting that the modern Essenes locked him up as an apostate.
S.P. Hewes, my great-great-grandfather, went by his initials because his full name was “Sobieski Polaski.” My mother’s family always assumed he was an immigrant from eastern Europe, but recent genealogical research shows that the Hewes family came to America from England six generations before S.P. was born. No one knows where his parents got this name; his siblings had rather common names like Elizabeth, William, and Eddy.
I remember S.P.’s daughter, my great-grandmother, who lived until I was five. An interesting note: she was an aunt of the infamous gangster John Dillinger, the FBI’s Public Enemy No. 1 in 1934.
Martin Chamberlain gets his name from (1) Marty McFly in my favorite time travel films, the Back to the Future trilogy
, and (2) the last name of a junior high school science teacher who introduced me to my favorite science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, by reading in class my favorite short story about time travel, “A Sound of Thunder.”
This story begins on August 8, 2059, the date of our marriage anniversary and my 100th birth-year.
About the Author
Larry A. Brown is a university professor, teaching courses in world literature, film, theater, and religion. He lives with his wife and cat in Tennessee. He has also published a non-fiction book, How Films Tell Stories.