by John Huegel
They learned how to turn on and off the experiential recording that was the critical portion of their roles as temporal observers. Once on, it would record all of their experiences. They learned that they alone could control exactly how much of that recorded information was transferred back to headquarters when they returned from a trip. That gave them some degree of comfort knowing that their personal experiences weren’t totally open to the observation of some anonymous future people!
The last area of training was on communications. They learned how to communicate mentally with each other, first by announcing their availability to communicate, and then by initiating and accepting a communication link with each other, or with intelligent devices in the vicinity.
At first, they were on a restricted access, so they didn’t interrupt other people or devices in the Time Camp station. Once they learned how to control their access, they were granted more access by Jade to the devices, and eventually to more people in Time Camp.
As they worked to master their communication ability, they were introduced to other new visitors to Time Camp and spent time interfacing with them. They learned how to control the amount and speed of transfer of information, and to accept greater volumes of information from other senders, and to automatically control the flow. By the end of the two weeks, they had very good control of all of the aspects of their enhancements: biological, Timeline, recording and communication.
“Now that you can control your enhancements, we’re going to get you ready for your Prime Mission. It’s a real observational mission in a near timeline, and you’re expected to be able to control your enhancements AND act properly to be able to complete the mission without getting into trouble,” noted Kara.
“What if we screw up? I don’t want to be the guy that ruined time!” exclaimed Tom.
“Not to worry, so much. Follow the temporal Green Line, and remember, there’s a Help Beacon active in your assignment time, so if you get in trouble, shout to the beacon through your enhancements and help will come…though that would dim your chances of passing your Prime Mission I’m afraid,” said Kara.
“I guess that’s to be expected. It’s a test. So where, I mean where/when are we going?” asked Tom.
“You’ll be going back to Germany, 1989, to the fall of the Berlin Wall. There were enough people there that you could mix in, and not far enough back that you’ll get temporal shock,” said Kara.
“You mean we have no escort? We’re on our own?” asked Liz, concerned.
“Yup. This one is all about you two. We’ll be looking in on you from Intertime Zone, but we won’t bail you out unless you call for help or you stray into the Red Zone of the timeline,” answered Kara.
“Don’t we need to learn German or something?” asked Liz.
“Not really. There were enough Westerners in the area that you’ll do fine with a bit of conversational German, and posing as Americans visiting the area,” said Kara.
She continued, “Now, before you go, I want you to access and download a briefing from the information server, named ‘Watson2-001’. Go ahead and pull it now, and make sure to save it.”
Tom and Liz mentally accessed the database and downloaded the information into their brains. Immediately, they knew and had access to an incredible store of information about East/West German relations, and the events leading up to, and following, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989!
For their final preparations, they went to Wardrobe and chose clothing appropriate to their status as tourists from America visiting West Germany. Completing their packing and orientation, they returned to the main departures room and made their first trip to the dispatcher, with Kara in tow as an observer.
Their communication ability told them that their operator was named George. “Hello George. We’re on our Prime Mission. Please set us up for November 7, 1989, Frankfurt Germany Timestation 1, 0800 Local.”
George replied, “Good luck Liz and Tom. November 7, 1989, 0800, Frankfurt TimeStation. Please use Booth 55. Return in +1?”
Tom and Liz stumbled a bit but remembered that their expected return to this place/time was to be one minute after their departure. “Booth 55, +1, Good Day,” said Tom, and George smiled and gave him a ‘thumbs up’ and pointed them to Booth 55.
Back at the Watson’s house, Laura was nearly jumping off of the couch. “So you DID go to Germany! You were at the falling of the wall! You WERE in my picture!” she shouted.
“Yes, we were there, and it’s my fault that we got in the picture,” said Liz. “We strayed into the main action and I saw the temporal flow go orange, but I didn’t react in time to get out of the photo.”
“Laura, I’m so sorry that I snapped at you Friday. It’s just to us, it just happened, and I couldn’t believe that you had found us out,” said Liz, apologetically.
Laura went to her mother and gave her a hug. “I forgive you. I knew that something strange was going on, and we are all so glad that you are telling us the truth, as freaking strange as it is!”
Everyone relaxed a bit and took a deep breath. They all realized that this was an amazing moment for the Watson family.
“Are you kids ready for the rest?” asked Tom. The kids all nodded in agreement, and he set about telling the rest of the story.
Chapter 14: The Wall Falls
Tom and Liz nervously approached booth 55. As they neared the door, a display lit up in blue with their names and the target date, time and location. Their enhancements saw the booth and it asked them if they were both ready. They had practiced this part, and acknowledged. It then warned them that biologicals would be set to nonfertile for the duration of the trip, and a temporal beacon would accompany them. They acknowledged those messages, and the doors opened. Kara waved at them and the portal closed. The breathed a heavy sigh, and prepared for the next step.
As the transit completed, their enhancements received the message %FRANKFURT TIMESTATION, 1989 NOVEMBER 7, 0800 WELCOME%. The doors opened, and they emerged to a small inner office of a shipping company in the city of Frankfurt, Germany, two days before the fall of the wall.
Immediately, they saw the broadcast of two other people with enhancements, the receptionist, and a worker in the warehouse. *Welcome*, sent Greta, the secretary and operator. *GutenTag, und good luck on your prime mission!*. They also received an %ON% ping from the microscopic temporal help beacon that would be near them as they traveled.
They traveled with two rolling suitcases, a 35mm camera, and Liz carried a purse. They dressed in casual clothing, appropriate for tourists from America visiting Germany on a vacation. The exited the facility, walked two blocks to the streetcar stop, and purchased a streetcar tickets with some Deutschemark coins they had been provided. Following the maps, they navigated the excellent German surface rail system to get to the main Hautptbaunhof, or train station, in the city of Frankfurt.
There, they had to get tickets to go North to Berlin. As they approached the ticket counters, they asked in broken German and English for round trip tickets to Berlin. The ticket agent asked them, “First class or tourist?”
Liz said “First Class,” and her temporal beacon flashed yellow. Immediately, she said “Sorry, I mean tourist.” The beacon faded to green, and they purchased two tickets in tourist class for Berlin. *That was strange,* Liz sent to Tom.
*Yeah, there must be someone in First Class that we shouldn’t meet,* replied Tom silently to Liz.
Once on the train, they made themselves comfortable, and had an uneventful but long ride to Berlin. That had a chance to talk with some German citizens who spoke very good English, and Tom had a chance to practice some German which was part of his downloaded briefing. He found that he kind of knew the words, but the pronunciation was difficult to get right. There were a few hilarious moments as he mispronounced a few phrases, and his new friends roared with kind laughter at his mismanagement of their national language.
Upon arrival at Berlin’s Haputbonhauf, they parted with their new frien
ds, and chose their local transportation to their hotel, which had been reserved for them and confirmed by the agent at the Frankfurt TimeStation. It was a lovely but small hotel, and had a nice pub on the first floor. Tom and Liz checked in and headed to the pub for a couple of cold German Lagers and an excellent German meal of roast beef, gravy, fried potato puffs, pickled cabbage and a cherry streusel mit coffee for dessert.
Full and relaxed, they chose to retire early, rise with the sun, and actually be tourists!
As the change of East German government had taken place on October 18th, the expectation of a major shift in relations between East and West Germany was expected. Tourism was heavy and there was a strong feeling of impending change in the air on the 8th of November, 1989.
Tom and Liz spent the 8th of November walking the various areas of free West Germany. As they were instructed, they were permitted to dine and purchase small items of clothing or souvenirs, but they were to surrender them back to Wardrobe on their return to Time Camp. They had a great morning walking around West Berlin, and Tom even took pictures with the camera he was given. He hoped that they would actually come out, and he could see them someday!
They concluded their day with a simple dinner in one of the fine Italian restaurants, sampling a pizza with olives and artichoke hearts, and washing it down with a clean wheat beer.
The next day, November 9th, they stayed near the hotel and watched the live newscast where it was announced that East Germans were free to travel west. Then they went outside and watched as thousands of citizens passed through the previously deadly passages. They kept their personal recorders running as they watched people streaming through the gates and celebrating.
On the 10th, the bulldozers arrived and started dismantling the walls. Tom and Liz were on hand to record the events, and the emotional energy was overwhelming to both of them. While observing the activities, Liz strayed very close to a man using a sledge to break the wall, and didn’t notice a man with a camera in the background. Immediately, her temporal enhancement flared orange, and she pulled back, frightened. She rejoined Tom near the back of the crowd, and observed the historical rejoining of West and East at a safer distance.
On the 11th of November, she and Tom headed back to Frankfurt and returned to the warehouse. *Welcome back* chimed the receptionist into their heads. *Ready to return to Time Camp?*
*Yes!* They acknowledged, and the portal opened for them. It reminded them %RETURN TO TIME CAMP +1 FROM DEPARTURE. READY?%
They acknowledged and were soon back in the grand hall, with Kara waiting for them. Just a minute had passed in her time, and she was expecting their return.
“Well, how was it?” asked Kara, as they walked from Booth 55 to the debriefing area.
“Amazing!” exclaimed Liz, finally aware that she had just completed her Prime Mission. Tom was equally excited. They both felt very proud to have completed a solo mission as observers in time!
“Great! Now all you need to do is Brain Dump and we can talk about the next steps,” said Kara.
They went to the debrief area, and as they did, Tom and Liz talked about which experiences they should dump. They agreed on the televised portions, the free passage, and the wall coming down. They would omit the travel and general tourist sections.
“That’s good. The futurists are usually not concerned about you your travels, only the historical events from your eyes. Good choices, “ said Kara.
“One question,” said Liz, a bit hesitantly. “I tripped an Orange Timeline alert once. Am I in big trouble for that?”
Kara smiled and replied, “No Liz, you won’t go to Time Prison for that. It was an honest mistake with very little warning. We watched that from the outside and believe me, there’s no reason at all for you to worry. Although your picture may make it into the history books.”
“Really? Isn’t that a problem?”
“Not so much, Liz. See, many people look like many others, so it’s not a huge deal. I doubt many people will notice.”
“That makes me feel better,” said Liz. “Let’s get this brain dump over with!”
In Jade’s office, they interfaced with the system and uploaded the correct memories and experiences and saved them.
Jade asked them, “So did your enhancements work OK? Did you have any problems?”
Tom replied, “No, they worked just fine. We were able to send to one another and the operators at the TimeStation. No alerts from the biologicals. Recording was perfect, and we know for certain that the TimeLine alert works just fine!”
Jade smiled and said, “Yes, I heard. All’s well that ends well, Watsons!”
Once they were done uploading their recordings, they met up with Kara once more. She asked them, “So, are you hooked? Do you want more?”
“Heck yeah!” exclaimed Tom and Liz. “This beats living in our own time.”
“Hold on, you two. You know that you’ll have to spend a lot your lives in your own time? Especially if you include your kids in this adventure?” asked Kara.
“Let’s talk about that. How do you plan to include the kids?” asked Liz.
“Well, we’ve found that for longer observations, families tend to be more stable, and we get a huge variety of emotional response variations from historic events with older and younger observers. The challenge is that we can’t keep them away from their timeline too long, or they will grow too fast while they are gone in time, and they will arouse suspicion in their own time,” replied Kara.
“So, we can take the kids, but not too often, and not for too long? Kind of like super-exclusive vacations?” asked Tom.
“Right. And I’ll warn you, if something happens and you are gone too long temporally, and the kids grow too quickly, you may have to move to another city without warning to keep your friends and relatives from catching on. This will be one of the hardest things for your kids to agree to,” said Kara.
“I can see that. Our kids are pretty stuck to their friends. So how do we go about ‘recruiting’ our kids?” asked Tom.
Kara replied, “Be honest. Sit them down. Tell them the whole story. Stress the adventure. I know them all well. They will be receptive. They’ll come around. “
“And by the way, you’ll receive a handsome consulting stipend from our Era 47 company for your efforts. So it will be financially worth your while in your own time.”
“Nice!” said Tom. “The old Toyota is on its last legs!”
Tom and Liz said their goodbyes, and returned to the Buffalo TimeStation exactly one minute after they left on Thursday evening during their business trip. Then they headed back to the convention and wrapped it up on Friday afternoon, heading back to Erie.
Chapter 15: The Decision
Around the couch, the kids were silent and looked a bit troubled. They weren’t exactly sure what was being asked of them, but they kind of understood.
Finally, Jenna piped up. “So, you are asking us to join you in time trips to witness historic events. It won’t be forever, but we’ll be gone a while and when we get back, it will be like we never left to people in our own time. Is that right?”
“That’s right, honey,” said Tom. “We don’t know exactly when they will call us for missions, but we’ll need to be able to go several times a year. Then we’ll come back right after we left, but we’ll have grown older while we were gone,” said Tom.
Laura asked, “AND we’ll get these enhancement thingies?”
Liz said, “Yes, but they are turned off in our own time. So you are only superwoman when you are time traveling!” Laura made a fake frown.
“It’s important that you all agree to this on your own, without us forcing you. And if we sign up as a family we’ll need a cover to explain why we go out of town so much. The closest TimeStations are Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and we’ll need some reasons for that,” said the kids’ Dad.
Andy said, “So let me get this straight. I get to do everything I can do today, AND I get to do stuff that nobody else IN
THE WORLD will be able to do? And I get secret powers? Count me in!”
Laura chimed in, “Um, so I won’t have Facebook or my phone or my friends when we do these trips?”
Liz said, “No, but you will have amazing connections to information you have never imagined, you will see famous historical events first-hand, and we can mentally talk to each other and other travelers while we’re on assignment.”
The room was silent for a few minutes. Everyone wanted to process their thoughts and emotions.
Finally, Tom said, “Let’s sleep on this. No talking about it to anyone outside this family. Give us an answer after school tomorrow.”
Monday dawned as hectic as it always does for a school day. Everyone got caught up in work, school, activities and evening stuff. Dinner was a late 8PM meal of soup and sandwiches at the kitchen table.