The 9/11 Machine

by Greg Enslen

  It was the morning of September 11, 2001 but, so far, nothing tragic had occurred.

  Don was still on edge, to be sure, but it was nearly 11:00 a.m., and there had been no attacks, no hijackings. He’d wanted to pinch himself. In fact, Don had been outside this morning at 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane had struck the North Tower in his original timeline. But nothing had happened. He’d stayed outside until 9:15—well after the second plane was supposed to strike—but it turned out to be just another beautiful Tuesday morning.

  For the first time in a long time, Don felt relaxed.

  He stood back and observed the continuing construction on the new particle accelerator—it was red and very large, like the original one he’d left behind. This time he’d been able to build it again from scratch, using less polybenudium, which was expensive and difficult to source.

  Ellis was sweaty—he’d just finished a workout in the small apartment that he’d set up in one corner of the warehouse for his own use. His doppelganger and his family were safe now—they were all out in California at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, where the younger Ellis was working with Marburger and the scientists to construct their machine. He wished them good luck—he’d intentionally left out a crucial subsystem in the schematics, so the machine would never work. He didn’t need the Bush or future administrations possessing a working time machine. Nothing good could come of that.

  Ellis thought about the younger Don and his family. Ellis found it very difficult to be around this version of Sarah and Tina without missing his—they’d met a few times, but it had been awkward. They were the same, and yet somehow he knew they weren’t “his”—of course, he would do anything to keep them safe, as the younger Ellis would. But he’d been actively avoiding them, spending more and more time holed up in the warehouse, working on the machine.

  Ellis watched as several interns worked to bolt the last particle accelerator arm to the support mast, ensuring a stable wave field. Terry was below them, working on the reactor containment box—last time, it had been as big as a van, but now it was smaller, the size of a refrigerator on its side. The confinement box channeled the battery power into the accelerator, which then created a rift in space and time. The machine looked almost complete now, tidier than last time. Wires and pipes ran in clean lines across the warehouse floor instead of feeding into the machine in a ropy mess.

  The only components that would be larger in this timeline were the batteries. Ellis knew that the industrial storage batteries that he’d used on the earlier machine would not be available here, but he wasn’t expecting to have to jury-rig together his own battery matrix to store up enough juice to power the machine. He had a whole team working on that problem—he could fire off the machine just using power from ConEd, but he preferred not to. Doing so would cause a massive power outage along the entire eastern seaboard, and he didn’t want that kind of attention during the testing phase.

  Of course, if he used it to leave this timeline, it didn’t really matter—but then, if he was using the machine to exit this timeline, then he had failed.

  Stevens walked up to him, smiling.

  “Dr. Raines?”

  Ellis nodded.

  “Those—other items you ordered are here,” Stevens added. Together, they walked past the machine and all the ancillary areas required to build it—battery area, machine shop to custom mill parts, and the massive computer lab. He had ended up needing three times as many computers in this timeline to handle the data processing requirements to focus the accelerator and make the machine work. It was too bad the machine had a limited amount of mass that it could project through time—if he ever left this timeline to build the machine farther back in the past, he would be smart and bring his own computers.

  Ellis and Stevens walked out into the front of the warehouse, where the building was stacked high with wooden crates. Three serious-looking Italian men stood next to two new wooden crates.

  Ellis walked up, greeting them warmly.

  “Favurio, hello. Gentlemen,” Ellis said, acknowledging the others.

  Favurio, the leader of the group, stepped up and shook Ellis’ hand.

  “How you doin’, Dr. Raines?”

  “I’ve been better, but today has been good. Very good. And I have a feeling I’m about to get some good news. What do you have for me today, Favurio?”

  One of the large men stepped over and removed the lid from one of the crates. Inside rested scores of automatic weapons and a large pile of ammunition. Ellis reached in and took one out, nodding at it.

  “Excellent,” he said. “AK-47s.”

  Favurio nodded. “Untraceable. And there are more in the other crate, along with those two special items you requested.”

  Don looked at him. “Really? You were able to find those for me?” He felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

  Favurio smiled. “Yes, Dr. Raines. It wasn’t that difficult,” he said, glancing around at the other people in the room.

  Ellis smiled and nodded to Stevens, who reached into his pocket. He saw the other Italians tense up and look at Favurio, who shook his head to wave them off. Stevens pulled out a large envelope, handing it to Favurio.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” Ellis said to Favurio, speaking quietly. “There’s a little extra in there for you and your families. And remember what I said—a friend of mine in the government says that some serious shit might be happening in the next few weeks. Take that money, take your friends, and go upstate—take a little holiday, okay?”

  Favurio nodded slowly, lifting at the bulging envelope. “There’s a lot in here.”

  Ellis nodded. “I know you have a big family,” he said quietly. “Split it up as you see fit,” he said.

  Favurio nodded and thanked him again, and then he and his crew left. Terry walked up and joined Ellis and Stevens, who were looking at the weapons.

  Terry whistled.

  “Wow, we’ve got our own arsenal, now. Are we expecting an invasion?” Terry reached in and picked up a gun, then held it and made a face. “Say hello to my little friend!” he said in a horrible Cuban accent.

  Ellis laughed out loud, something he rarely did. “Thanks, Scarface.”

  Terry lifted the gun, feeling its heft. “You know what to do with these, Mr. Raines?” Terry asked, smiling.

  Ellis picked up a weapon and expertly popped out the magazine, emptied the chamber, and reloaded it in a matter of moments. He turned and smiled at Terry.

  “Yup, I know what I’m doing,” Ellis said. “I’m just being careful, Terry. I don’t want anything to go wrong. Stevens, another thing—can you look into reinforcing those doors?”

  Stevens nodded as he counted the guns and made a notation on a clipboard he was carrying. After a second, he stepped over to the second crate and removed the lid.

  Terry whistled again when he saw what was in the second crate.

  “Jesus. Well, it would take an army to stop us now, sir.”

  Ellis smiled. “That’s the idea, Terry.”

  The rest of the day was uneventful—Ellis finished Stevens’ catalogue of the contents of the new armory, then got some more work on his latest project, attempting to reduce one of the subsystems by 40% in size and weight. This particular subsystem had been identified as one of the largest, by volume, so reducing it in size would allow them to further reduce the size of the overall machine.

  Around sunset, he again walked outside to watch the sun settle down onto the horizon.

  As evening fell on New York City on the evening of September 11, 2001, the twin towers began to sparkle with lights. Ellis watched as they and other buildings around them came to life, the lights inside them coming on as the light faded.

  Dr. Donald Ellis stood in the cool breeze for a long time, watching the skyline across the river. He’d done it. He’d really changed the past.

  2.17

  The Truth and a Lie

  The younger Dr. Ellis was not having a pleasant day. In fact, he w
as a nervous wreck—things were not progressing as planned with the machine, and even though he’d been able to bring Sarah and Tina out with him on this last trip, the trepidation was running through him like electricity.

  It was September 11.

  He’d been dreading this day and, at the same time, awaiting it. After the older Ellis had visited him that first time in his living room, things had changed for him forever. He’d taken a sabbatical from the university and taken those stacks of money and proof from Ellis and moved into a new phase of his life, a phase that involved meeting with government people and trying to convince them of the reality of an event that had not yet happened. He had argued with the elder Dr. Ellis about the roles they were to play. Wouldn’t the argument be infinitely more convincing coming from the Dr. Ellis who had actually seen it, the one from the other timeline?

  But the elder Ellis had disagreed—he thought it was too important that they start construction on the machine immediately, in case they were unable to convince the government to intervene and build one of their own.

  But now it was that fateful day, and Ellis had been unable to sleep at all.

  “You okay?” Sarah asked from the bed. Tina wasn’t in the other bedroom—she had started first grade at the local elementary school. She’d be taking classes there until they could all return to Jericho.

  Don looked at her, happy. “Yes, I am. Listen, I know things are strange, with my sudden involvement in this work out here. But it will make sense today, I think. Just stay in the hotel and don’t go out for any reason.”

  She looked at him with a strange expression. “Why? What’s going to happen?”

  Ellis shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter now—in about an hour, terrorists are going to strike this country. Unless they get caught—their pictures are all over every airport in the country—they will hijack planes and crash them into the Capitol building and Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center buildings in New York. More than 21,000 people will be killed.”

  “How… how do you know?” she asked quietly, looking out the window.

  “That’s the crazy part—I don’t know. But do you remember in the spring, when I took those three days off in April?”

  She nodded.

  “One day, when I got home, there was another version of me in the house.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What?”

  “Yes. Another Dr. Ellis was there, waiting to talk to me. He knew about the attacks. He called them ‘9/11’—I remember he said it with such solemnity, like he was talking about Pearl Harbor. That was one of the things that convinced me he was telling the truth.”

  “What did he say?”

  Ellis sat at the corner of the bed. “He talked about the attacks and how they would affect the nation. The Capitol in D.C., and the Trade Center in New York—hijackers are going to crash planes into them. The Pentagon, as well. And… and he said that you and Tina died. In the World Trade Center.”

  Sarah’s eyes darkened and she sat up. She glanced at the closed door that led to Tina’s bedroom in the large suite.

  Don continued. “He said that… you died in the attacks. One plane crashed into each tower, and you were in the South Tower, visiting your friend Elaine.”

  “But she works at the university,” Sarah said, confused. “She was trying to get a job with a firm in the Towers, but… does that mean she’s in the tower? Has it been attacked?”

  Ellis shook his head. “No. I just checked. There have been no attacks—it was supposed to happen this morning. Everything’s fine, so far. And after… in the world he’s from, Ellis said that after you and Tina died, he was lost without you. He said that he started work immediately on finishing the machine.”

  Sarah looked at him for a long moment. “The machine…you mean those schematics hanging on the wall of our basement? A time machine, one that really works?”

  Ellis nodded, smiling. “I know. It’s crazy—I’ve done a lot of preliminary work, but he finished it. It took him nine years, but he came back to warn us. And to save you and Tina. He gave me the blueprints and all the information about 9/11 to give to the government.”

  They were both quiet. He knew the next question, and he hated to lie to her, but there was no other option. No one could know about Red Hook—it was unfortunate that even he knew about it, but the older Dr. Ellis had taken that security risk. It allowed both Dr. Ellis’ to work on two different things at the same time.

  Sarah stood and walked to the windows—outside, the sky was still dark. Ellis glanced at the clock—the first plane would begin hitting in a few minutes.

  “What happened to… the other you?” she asked.

  “He died. I was talking to him, and he collapsed,” Ellis lied, his voice low. He hated to do it, but no one could know. “He was bleeding from his nose and mouth. I took him downstairs, and he gave me CDs full of information, and he was explaining it all to me as I looked at it on the computer in the basement. He saw the plans for the machine on the wall and smiled, and then he died. Massive aneurysm.”

  She was quiet.

  “I think that two people cannot exist in the same timeline—he knew this was going to happen,” Ellis said. It was a work of fiction—as far as he could ascertain, there was no limit to the number of possibilities and permutations that could be brought about with the construction of an operating time machine.

  “He knew he would die,” Ellis said. “But for him, it was worth it.” Ellis looked out the window with her for a long moment, and then he held her hand.

  “If anything were to happen to you…”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I think it’s crazy that this is all happening because… of me and Tina. If we had survived that attack—”

  He turned her around. “Don’t think about it like that. You and Tina are fine, and we’re out of harm’s way. We’re almost finished with the machine—”

  “You’re building it? A time machine? Here?” she turned, her eyes wide.

  He nodded. “That’s why we’re out here—Dr. Marburger and I are supervising the construction of the machine. President Bush said—”

  “You’ve met the president?”

  Ellis smiled. “Several times.”

  “Cool,” she smiled.

  “The President said our job was to get the machine up and running in ten months—I didn’t think it was possible, but with all the resources of the government at our disposal, we’re halfway done. And to think it took the other Ellis nine years.”

  She nodded. “And the terrorists?”

  Ellis turned and began to get dressed. “That’s the president’s job—he’s got his people working on it.”

  Sarah started to tidy the bed but stopped.

  “But didn’t they already know who the people were? Surely I would have heard about it on the radio. Couldn’t they just arrest them?”

  He looked at her. “That’s what I suggested, and that’s what they should have done, but they decided to follow the terrorists and catch them in the planning, so that they would be able to prosecute.”

  Sarah shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Well, the only people who knew what was coming were the terrorists themselves and the few people in the government that I had talked to. Knowledge from the future can’t get you a search warrant, and it certainly isn’t admissible in a court of law, no matter how horrible the videos and pictures are.”

  “There are videos?”

  Ellis nodded. “Yes, it’s horrible. I’ll never be able to get some of the images out of my head. The New York ones are the worst, because you… you and Tina were in the building.”

  “Oh. What happened in D.C.?”

  “Two planes—one into the Capitol building. About half of Congress was killed. The other plane took out part of the Pentagon.”

  “My God,” she said quietly.

  “The Capitol dome collapsed. At the Pentagon—the plane came in l
ow and hit the west side of the building. The initial damage was bad enough, but then the fires spread really fast. Ellis said it was the 1940s’ construction materials, along with no sprinkler systems. Something like 2,600 people died. The military took months to recover, and in that time, small wars broke out worldwide. Ellis said that there was a palpable sense of vulnerability in the air, as if anything could happen at any moment. Bush’s wife had been at the Capitol, meeting with members of Congress, and she was killed as well. Ellis said the chaos lasted for years afterward, with President Bush and then President Cheney launching preemptive strikes whenever any threat came up.”

  “Cheney? President Cheney?” she asked.

  “Yes, evidently Bush had some kind of breakdown after 9/11. His wife Laura had been up on the Hill and died in the attack. Losing his wife was too much. He was leading the nation without any direction. Within six months of the attacks, the United States was involved in several wars around the world, invading Afghanistan and bombing parts of Iraq, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Because Congress had been incapacitated, nations around the world moved forward with invasions and bombings, assuming the U.S. was weak.”

  Sarah was quiet.

  “President Bush was trying to knock out al Qaeda, the group behind the attacks on 9/11.”

  “Jesus.”

  He walked around the bed and reached into his bag, taking out an object, and handed it to her. “Here.”

  She looked down at the item—it was flat, a foot long and eight inches wide. It appeared to be made out of black glass, with only one button on the front. She flipped it over and saw the familiar logo.

  “Apple?”

  He nodded. “Yes, it’s called an iPad—they’ll come out with a phone first, in 2007, and then this in 2010.” He pushed the button to turn it on, then slid his finger across the screen to unlock it. “It’s all touch-controlled.”

  He let her play with it for a few minutes—every once in a while, she’d make a happy or surprised sound as she discovered something else interesting about the device.

  “This is amazing,” she said. “It’s really from the future?”