Time Travel Omnibus Volume 2

by Anthology

  Ben quickly hit a switch on the panel and a digital clock mounted on the wall started to count time.

  “Is that a worm hole?” Caroline asked.

  “There’s only one way to find out.” He answered.

  10:00 A.M.

  The digital clock displayed that 1:50 had passed. The area in the center of the ring continued to shimmer with a colorful random light pattern on the field of black. Ben was pleased to comment that nothing had come out of the machine, reminding her that if something had, their reality would have been the product of another. The two of them had been updating a text document that Ben created on the computer. It was a message they planned to send into the worm hole. They burnt it onto a disk and inserted it into a case. When the event clock displayed 2 hours, Ben tossed the disk into the shimmering light pattern within the ring.

  Caroline half wanted it to fly out the other side of the ring, but it didn’t.

  8:10 A.M.

  Caroline noticed it first. Something was happening inside the diameter of the ring.

  “Look!” Ben shouted, pointing at the ring. It looked like ripples of color within the circular portal. You could no longer look through the ring and to the other side. Your vision was stopped at the precipice of the ring and danced over the shimmer of color on a curtain of black. Ben quickly hit a switch on the panel and a digital clock mounted on the wall started to count time.

  “Is that a worm Hole?” Caroline asked.

  Before Ben could answer, a flat square object came out of the left side of the ring and landed on the floor. It slid a foot and stopped before they recognized it as a jewel case with a CD inside.

  “Apparently we are not the Alpha Reality,” Ben said as he walked to the door.

  The thought of being something less than original confused Caroline. They had talked of alternate realities, but she had always known they were the real thing. Now, she didn’t know what to think. Ben did not seem upset by the revelation. “What does that make us?” She asked in a broken voice.

  Ben became aware of his wife’s emotional distress. She was upset by her misunderstanding that they were something less than they were a moment before. “We are the same.” He answered. “We were born and lived our own lives. We invented, built and started a mass simulator that does warp time!” Ben was excited. Although it seemed to Caroline that they were not actually the first to achieve the goal, Ben did not feel that disappointment. He had accomplished what he set out to accomplish. He stepped into the room and grabbed the disk. “Now let’s see what I had to say to me,” he said with a smile.

  11:10 A.M.

  Ben half guessed a response from the second reality would take an hour, but he didn’t know for sure. As the event timer hit 3 hours the CD case plopped out of the ring and slid across the floor. Even expecting it, the arrival of the case startled Ben, and Caroline nearly jumped from her seat. They both ran to the door to retrieve it. Electric excitement filled the room as Ben let Caroline get the CD and load it into the computer. The couple read the file and looked at each other in amazement and wonder. All Ben’s theories seemed to be correct. Caroline didn’t know whether to scream or cry.

  The next few hours were spent with a series of disk trades, and experiments, between the two realities. They had learned that a time piece could be passed between realities without losing a second. The two dimensions were connected and moving together, progressing into their own futures. They had learned that up until the disk came out of the ring in the second reality, that the two realities had been exactly the same. Their jobs, their home, their finances were all identical. The weather outside, the flower blooms in the garden, the sailboats skirting across the bay, all were the same. The only differences were the first person actions and reactions between the researchers. Life outside the experiment continued in duplicate. The final experiment of the day showed them that a mouse in a small cage could pass back and forth between realities unharmed. This cultivated the seed of an idea to visit themselves in the past.

  9 P.M.

  “What do you think they are doing right now,” Caroline asked. They were finally relaxing for the night, and celebrating. Ben was drinking iced rum and coke while Caroline sipped a red wine. They sat on the patio, under a clear sky, full of stars, while a bay breeze kept them comfortable. The machines’ hum was barely audible as it continued to warp space in the garage.

  “I bet they are having a cocktail, just like we are.”

  “What’s next?” She asked.

  Ben said what both of them had been thinking. “I think we need to visit them.”

  “Sure, but shouldn’t we tell someone, or get a patent or something. This will solve all of our money problems, just like you said it would.”

  “Even though this thing is all I’ve been thinking about for years, I’m not sure how to sell it.” Ben sighed as he took a long drink. “The government would probably make it classified and pay less for it than any big corporation. Still, that’s probably what we should do. It could be considered a threat to the nation.”

  “I wondered about that,” Caroline admitted. “But, if anything done in the other reality can’t affect ours, how can it be a threat?”

  After a thought, Ben answered, “A person could be kidnapped from a different reality, tortured for information, and not even be missing.”

  “Our government would love it.” Caroline added.

  Ben had been so consumed with building the machine and the physics involved that he barely thought about the ethics of using it. The situation dropped on them like a bomb. Any government would use the machine to have an advantage in world politics. Any big business would use it to gain an advantage in the market. There was no question that the machine was valuable. It was obvious that whoever controlled it had a clear advantage in business or government. Whoever controlled it had to be trusted.

  Caroline broke the silence. “Why did you build it?” she asked.

  “I had to see if it could be done, if I could do it.” In his voice she noted the pride of his accomplishment. He stood and walked to the wet bar in the corner of the sun room and made another drink for himself. The ice rang like a bell as it dropped into the empty glass. When he returned he carried the near empty wine bottle for her and poured. “I think I was caught up in the physics.”

  “You said everything would be alright, like we would get rich from the discovery. Bill collectors are calling every day. We need to do something.” She knew that she was excited and she was getting a little loose lipped from the wine. She had to watch what she said, but her mixed emotions regarding the machine began to surface. “If we can’t somehow pay for that thing, it’s going to kill us.”

  “Maybe I can get a paper published on the physics of time. That will bring in some extra money, a few hundred anyway.”

  Caroline sighed. “Your work is worth so much more than that. If you publicize your theories someone else will build a machine. It should be you to get the glory.” The wine was going down easier than it was earlier, she was starting the get drunk and her thoughts were bouncing back and forth between selling it to a big corporation for a million dollars or the government. Ben had different thoughts.

  “Why couldn’t we just keep it to ourselves for a while?”

  “That won’t solve any of our money problems,” she reminded him.

  “If we sold the machine to a big company they would use it to make a profit, so why can’t we?”

  How could reaching into the past help us make money?” Caroline asked.

  “We are the alpha reality and we know the future of any past reality we create. We could win the lottery, or go to the dog track and win on long shots. All we need to do is to go back a few days.”

  Caroline nodded. “Or, we could find partners in the past who need some extra cash as badly as we need it.” They both looked at each other over the rim of their glasses. “Know any?”

  Laughing now, Caroline was seeing the end to their troubles. It really was time to celeb
rate. Skipping over to the wet bar on the side of the patio she opened the ice box and pulled out a bottle of Champaign. Ben took it from her and helped get the foil off and pop the cork. When he looked up Caroline had shed her clothes and was slipping into the dark waters of their pool. She was beautiful. In the moonlight, her perfect breasts and shapely hips, beckoned him. “It’s time to celebrate,” she cooed with a flirting smile. He slipped out of his clothes and joined her; together they would drink straight from the bottle.

  August 30

  Five days before, the connection with the other reality was broken by shutting off the machine. When they needed to, they would start it up again and connect to a new reality five days behind them, again on Aug 25th when the mass generator first powered up. Ben and Caroline had been busy collecting newspapers and watching the odds on the sports pages. With a bright red marker all the long shot winners and lottery results were circled.

  The Florida lottery paid out millions weekly, but it was monitored by the government and would take time to pay out. The big number teased them, but it wasn’t an option. Tampa had other options. There were two dog tracks less than an hour away. Thousands of dollars could be won on dog racing nightly. Not too far away was the Tampa Jai Ala fronton. Wagers were placed before the rounds and the winnings could be huge. The state also offered horse racing and off site betting on races across the country. The Seminole Indians offered poker and casino gambling at a resort hotel near the fair grounds. There was no shortage of ways to risk your money. But their plan eliminated the risk.

  The real question was if they should covertly travel to the past and gamble, or work with their second reality duplicates. The duplicates were in deep and over the barrel, just as they themselves were. They would love to have the benefit of knowing the winning dogs at the track. And, shortly after the mass generator is started up, the duplicates would be thinking similarly. Ben and Caroline figured they would need to be included. It would be almost impossible to pass back and forth each night, five or six evenings in a row, and not be discovered. It was decided they would work together and be fair about it. The second reality couple would deserve at least 30 percent more because they would carry the tax burden.

  When six days had passed they were ready. They had several hundred dollars in cash ready to wager and all the best long shots circled in red marker on the Tampa Tribune Sports pages. One cheat sheet for each of the next five days had been made for each of the participants in the endeavor. The Alfa couple would go to the Tampa Dog Track and the Beta couple would go to the Seminole Casino and do some off track horse betting. All they had to do was to introduce themselves to the second reality in the same way they had previously. They would go through the motions of passing the CD back and forth, exchanging data and creating a relationship with the second reality, just as they had done the first time. When the evening ended, they would all relax on the patio again, and think of all the possibilities and riches that the machine could offer them. In the morning, after recovering from the hangover, the second reality couple should have it in their minds that their debt needed to be paid before they went public. They would want to get out of debt, maybe get a new car, and then come up with a way to market the machine to the government. They figured it would ultimately get under government control anyway.

  August 31

  Everything had worked perfectly again. A connection had been made with a reality six days in their past. They passed a CD back and forth several times and experimented with small caged animals as well. It was incredible to think that they really could connect with a reality that was the same but completely different from their own. Everyone was excited and out of control with the thoughts of what could be done with the machine. It was agreed that at noon on the next day they would be ready for further experiments. At that point Ben and Caroline would suggest the benefits of gambling. It should be accepted without much hesitation, because the Beta reality had surely thought about it the night before.

  9 P.M.

  “What do you think they are doing right now?” Caroline asked. They were finally relaxing for the night. Again, Ben was drinking his favorite cocktail while Caroline sipped a red wine.

  They sat on the patio, under a clear sky, full of stars, while a bay breeze kept them comfortable. The machines’ hum was barely audible as it continued to warp space in the garage.

  “I bet they are having a cocktail, just like we are.”

  They looked at each other and laughed. Caroline held a week old paper in her lap glancing at the old news while Ben scanned the race results for the tenth time. They had done their homework and were ready for the next evening at the Dog Track. Caroline would be betting the dogs. It wasn’t until the third race that a dog named Brave heart would take the win at twelve to one. A three hundred dollar bet would bring in over three thousand dollars. Race five had a dog named Clover at sixteen to one. Caroline would place five hundred on that one. The final pick of the evening would be Toledo Sam. The odds were ten to one. By the end of the night they should have over sixteen thousand dollars. Roughly three thousand of that would be taken out for taxes. They would be using their own IDs and numbers. It would be completely legal, and only a little unethical. There were no rules against using time machines. It would be there lucky week!

  Ben heard a gasp from Caroline and looked over to her. Her face was frozen by what she read in the paper. “What is it?” He asked.

  “You got to look at this,” she said getting out of the lounger and heading to the patio table where the light was better. She laid out the paper and pointed to the headline that read: “Four Dead after Shootout!”

  “What’s that about?” Ben asked.

  “Listen to this.” Caroling began reading.”Police arrive early Sunday morning to find four suspected drug dealers dead of gunshot wounds. Inside their car was a box containing a large amount of cocaine and a duffel bag with 1.6 million dollars.”

  Ben was silent while he processed the story. It explained that drug traffic through the port had been increasing. Despite police and port authority efforts much of it was getting to the streets. Large quantities were sold to out of state dealers, and they suspected this was an out of state buy that went bad. Two of the victims were from Kentucky, and two were known local dealers. The next morning police found ear witnesses who heard noises that may have been gunshots around 2 A.M. but they did not report the noises.

  Ben’s mind was reeling but Caroline was way ahead of him. “We were so caught up in looking for long shots that we missed the news. This is exactly what we need. All we have to do is get there after the shoot-out, but before the police find them, and take the money!”

  “When did this happen?” Ben Asked.

  Caroline flipped the paper over finding the front page date. “It’s the August 27th paper.”

  She answered.

  “They find the scene tomorrow morning.”

  “We need to do it tonight! Right now the second reality versions of us are celebrating their first contact and wondering what they’ll do with the machine. We were in a drunken stupor by midnight.”

  Caroline recalled, “I hadn’t been that drunk in a long time, it was a bit too much celebration for me!”

  “We need to jump back about 1 A.M., there time, and do it,” Ben said.

  Caroline flopped down into her lounger. “We’ve got a few hours to kill. I could use a nap”

  Ben jerked in response to her comment. “How can you sleep? My head’s spinning.”

  “Listen honey,” she soothed him, “we are closer now to having all our problems solved than ever before. It’s as simple as going to the post office and picking up a package. Relax, it will be fine.” She was right, Ben thought. Everything they needed to know was printed in black and white. Still, he had a hard time relaxing and never slept as the clocked ticked into the night.

  3 A.M.

  They were standing before the curtain of shimmering black. It was time to take a step into the past. A little fear
upset their stomachs. Caroling felt jittery inside, and Ben had weak knees, but wouldn’t admit it. “We know the trip doesn’t harm an animal.” He said. “The mouse made it back and forth several times, and it still traveled the maze without a problem.” Even knowing it was safe, they couldn’t help but feel nervous.

  “It’s time,” Caroline said and they stepped through the ring together.

  There was no tunnel and there was no visual experience as illustrated in so many science fiction movies. It was anticlimactic. They just stepped into and out of a mechanical ring circled by electrical coils that hummed with electricity. They were in their garage, right where they started. It was like walking through a mirror and stepping into the reflection. With a raise eyebrow Ben looked over at Caroline, and was surprised to find her almost giggling with a smile. She was exhilarated; the adventurer in her personality was released. Like a character in a great novel, she was living out the classic story of time travel, and she loved it.

  They quietly passed through the door on the side of the garage and walked down the stone walk to the driveway. To their right they could see their pool and patio. They paused to look through the hedges at their own history. Exhausted from celebration and sex they could see themselves passed out on the loungers next to the pool. Caroline grabbed Bens’ hand and whispered into his ear. “That was a great night.”

  Rounding the corner of the walk they got into their own car parked on in the driveway. It was an older Ford Taurus, but the car was dependable. Ben pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. As expected, the tumblers were exactly the same and the door opened without a problem. They pulled onto Bayshore Boulevard and started toward downtown Tampa. The port was on the opposite side of town and they were silent as they drove the short distance. Once they were close to the scene, Ben pulled off the road and parked under the cross-town expressway. “We should be able to hear the gunshots from here,” he said and they rolled down the windows to listen. It was the bad side of town, but they were watching their surroundings and to their pleasure the streets seemed empty.