Gino and the Time Machine

by Gregg Stephens

  G-MAN PUBLICATIONS

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  INTRODUCTION

  Gino and the Time Machine Series of Books are created to offer children a gift of travel through imagination with real life learning facts that will help to educate and instill interests in various fields of knowledge such as history, science, and natural science.

  Gino Travels to the Land of the Dinosaurs is the first book of the Gino and the Time Machine Series. I hope you will enjoy reading these books to your children and will enjoy future adventures of our hero, Gino. Gino is a real life little boy who really does enjoy all the things that have been written about him. It is true that although his stories and adventures are fiction, he does spend hours upon hours studying Paleontology, Astronomy as well as Chemistry.

  The author of Gino and the Time Machine series are written by Gino’s real father, Gregg Stephens. Many of the interests that Gino has developed have been adopted by watching his parents in their pursuit of Chemistry, Agriculture, Herbs, Aquaculture and more.

  I hope you will enjoy this book. Please leave a great review if you enjoyed this book.

  Gregg Stephens

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1 The Life of Gino

  CHAPTER 2 The Noobis-14

  CHAPTER 3 We’re Not in Kansas

  CHAPTER 4 The Tar Pits

  CHAPTER 5 Coconut Batteries

  CHAPTER 6 Giant Spiders

  CHAPTER 7 Paul and the Pteranodon

  CHAPTER 8 Goodbye Porky!

  CHAPTER 9 Home Sweet Home

  Meet Dr. Gino

  Come on inside and join the fun as Gino and his good friend Paul travel in the Time Machine back in time to the days of the Dinosaurs!

  GINO TRAVELS TO THE LAND OF DINOSAURS

  CHAPTER 1

  Hi guys! My name is Gino. I am an 8 year old Itali-pino. My Mama is Filipino and my Papa is Italian. I have been interested in science since I was first able to read at the age of 3. My Papa taught me how to use a computer and a microscope before I entered kindergarten. I was totally fascinated on how much life there was in the microscopic world. So many things, like bacteria, fungi and viruses. Things that were alive, but we are unable to see.

  While most of my friends are playing video games, I prefer to build things, or watch Youtube videos, and research all kinds of things from human anatomy, microorganisms, math, and most of all, Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs are so interesting. I had no idea how big they really were until my mama and papa took me to the Cleveland Natural History Museum. They had a full sized Brontosaurus that was huge. I felt like a little ant standing beside it. I tried to imagine what it was like when it was alive 65 million years ago. There were so many other dinosaurs living back then. But, did you know there are still many living fossils today that we don’t even think about? Animals such as the Crocodile and alligator have been alive even when T-Rex was walking the planet.

  Recently, scientists discovered another living fossil off the coast of Africa. A fish called a Coelacanth was discovered by some local fishermen. It looks the same as it does in the fossils that have been dug up by archeologists.

  I love to talk about dinosaurs to all my friends at school. Most of them don’t know too much about them as we are just beginning to learn about them in the second grade. I already know so much about them, even more that my teacher does. One day, our school principal saw me and said, “Hello Dr. Gino”. I didn’t know why he called me that at the time, but now I understand, because not too many kids have so much passion about learning such things other than watching them in movies.

  When I grow up, I hope to learn more about such things as dinosaurs, or even chemistry (insert pic Gino in laboratory with test tubes) and learning how elements interact with one another. Chemistry is the knowledge of our universe and the world we live in. My Papa and I quiz each other all the time with the periodic chart. I will say, “Papa, what is the symbol Hg stand for?” And he will say, “Mercury! “Right”, I would say.

  Then one day we were talking about how awesome it would be if we could make a time machine and go back to see how the Earth was a long time ago. We started to talk about how the world would be different if we were able to change events in history if we could go back in time. My Papa always said that if he could go back in his life and know then what he knew now. So that made me start to think. What would I need to make a time machine?

  CHAPTER 2

  Today is Saturday and I am so excited to begin building my time machine. My friend Paul is going to come to my house today and help me build the machine. Paul has been my best friend since I was a baby. His mom and my mom are really good friends as well. When she comes to our home, we get to play together for hours. Paul doesn’t know that much about science, so he will be my assistant. We are gathering all the computer parts my Papa has laying around the house and gathering a bunch of empty boxes to assemble the time machine. We have a bunch of controllers, mother boards, ram, monitors and a bunch of keyboards. Now all I have to do is to experiment on how to configure all these parts to make the time machine. I found a video on the internet on how to make a flux machine. It said it was a device that would accelerate electrons and would not only be able to make time stand still, but if given enough electricity it could actually go back in time. That is what I hope we can do, go back in time.

  So let’s think for a moment. If I could go back in time, what would I want to do, or how far back would I want to go? Maybe I could go back to last week and study harder for my science test and get an A+ rather than a B+. That would be really cool. No, that isn’t good enough. I want to go back further, say, when the Revolutionary War was being fought. I could meet George Washington in person. Now that is really neat!

  If I were to meet General Washington, what would I say to him? Would I ask him for his autograph? Maybe he would recruit me and Paul into soldiers and we wouldn’
t be able to return home. Hmmm, I thought, this might be a little dangerous. We need to be really careful in this time travel stuff. If I remember correctly from my history books, General Washington and his men were freezing to death at Valley Forge, and had very little food. I think we need to dress for cold weather and take some extra food rations with us if we are able to travel to the 1700’s.

  It has been nearly 6 weeks that Paul and I have been working on the time machine. Everyone just laughs when my Mama tells her friends and family that I am building a time machine.

  We have the prototype completed and we are ready to test it. Paul and I are going over the checklist of items we will need to before making our first journey. We are going to attempt to travel back 2 weeks and see what happens. We are seated in the time machine. “Hey Gino”, yelled Paul, “We need to give the time machine a name”. “Great idea Paul,” I said. “What do you think we should call it?” “I know Paul, we will call it the Noobis-14!” “Cool Gino, I love it!”

  “Ok Paul, click the power button”, said Gino. Paul hit the power switch and all the lights lit up like a Christmas tree. “Wow, this is so cool Gino,” Paul stated with a huge smile on his face. There was a strange humming sound coming from one of the computer parts. It appeared that there was a vibration stemming from the power source. The fan’s bearings were going bad. “We will need to replace that part Paul because we don’t want to get stuck somewhere in time without any parts to replace it.” Replied Gino. Paul and Gino went back to the parts room and found a newer power source and quickly exchange the bad part. “That’s much better Paul, I think we are good to go now,” yelled Gino.

  “Ok Paul, set the dial to 2 weeks in the past which would be December 12, 2016,” mumbled Gino. “All systems are green,” said Paul. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 CLICK!!! At first nothing was happening. But a weird humming sound started to take place and everything in the room started to get blurry. As the sound got louder the room started to spin around and around. Paul and I could feel our bodies shaking like a leaf on a windy day. We were both screaming so loud but it was as if we were inside a tunnel. Suddenly everything turned white and then all the sound stopped. (

  We looked at our surroundings and it appeared as if nothing had happened. “Ahhhhh’” I said, “I don’t think anything happened.” “Let’s try again tomorrow Paul, it’s getting late, ok?” Paul agreed and the boys decided to meet at noon the next day to see what went wrong. Paul left for home with his mother, as Gino’s Mama called him to the dinner table. “So, how did your time machine go today Gino?” “Not so well,” he said. “It just made a lot of noise, but we are going to try to fix it tomorrow Mama.” After dinner, Gino went to his computer to watch some new videos. “Holy Cow” said Gino, “The date says December 12, 2016. “How can that be?” thought Gino. Today is the 28th! Immediately Gino looked at the front page news and recognized that this was old news. Gino jumped with excitement as he quickly realized that they were successful after all and they had traveled back 2 weeks in the past. Since he followed his school’s basketball games, he thought it would be really exciting to go to the game that night and see if his schools team would win like they did before. Excited with the news, Gino called Paul to share his discovery. “Paul, we have to go to the game tonight and see if we are going to win the championship game!”

  Gino already knew that his team won the league championship game 2 weeks ago, making it the first time in the school’s history that they won the championship. Gino and Paul were so excited that they were going to go watch the championship game, which they did not get to watch previously. “This is great’” Paul squealed with excitement. This was the first high school game the two boys had ever been able to go and watch.

  The first quarter had ended and Gino’s favorite team, the Saints were winning by 7 points. The opposing team, The Panthers were a really good team, but they weren’t as fast as the Saints. The second half was nerve wracking as the score went back and forth. There was only 1 minute left in the game and the Saints were losing by one point. Suddenly the center on the Panthers fouled Johnny Taylor, our best free throw shooter. He was going to the line with one shot, which would tie the game. I remember that the paper stated we won this game in overtime. So, this means that Johnny needs to make this shot to take the game into overtime. Johnny walked up to the line and dribbled the ball a few times and took his aim. Just as he was releasing the ball, Gino sneezed really loud. It was so loud that Johnny jerked his arm and he missed the shot. The crowd moaned and everyone looked at Gino with disbelief.

  The Saints lost the championship game by one point. “How can this be?” said Gino. “We won that game before!” Suddenly Gino realized something. When you travel back in time, you can alter the past by changing just one little thing, like a sneeze that wasn’t there before.

  He realized the golden rule of time travel. Every action has a reaction. This was one of the first laws of physics.

  “Let’s go home,” said Paul. Depressed and saddened, they both went home disappointed they had lost the game, but also learning a valuable lesson when traveling in time. You can just observe and nothing more. “Paul, we have to get back on the Noobis-14 and go ahead to the real time.” Gino replied. When they got home, they quickly enter the machine and returned back to the present time. Nothing seemed to have changed, but upon looking at the computer, the time was December 28. Gino went to the trash in the garage and dug out the newspaper for 2 weeks ago. The headlines read, “Saints Lose a Heartbreaker by a Sneeze!” Oh no, I thought, this is horrible!

  The boys had learned a lesson and were ready to try another journey tomorrow. “Paul, tomorrow we are going to go further back in time ok,” Gino said. “Pack a big lunch, we might be gone a little longer than a basketball game!”

  CHAPTER 3

  The next day was a rainy one, gray skies and winds blistering through the trees making them whistle like ghosts in pain. The power had been off most of the day and it was not possible for the boys to test all their computers functions. “Man, I hope we don’t have a power failure while we are out and about,” Gino replied.

  “Where are we going today Gino, asked Paul. “There is only one place today we need to go Paul, and that is back in time to around 1776.” replied Gino. “I want to see if General George Washington, our founding father was really as great a leader as the history books say he was,” stated Gino. This was the furthest journey the boys had taken thus far in the Noobis-14 time machine. Anything could go wrong and Murphy’s Law always applies – What could go wrong always does!

  Paul yelled, “Gino what date do you want me to set the timer on?” Gino replied, “Set it to April 12, 1780. Gino and Paul were both strapped in their seats with winter coats on and 2 lunch boxes packed with food. “Hold on Paul, I have to get my camera so I can take a picture of General Washington because no one will believe us” yelled Gino. Hmm, thought Paul, I wonder if the timer goes back further that 1780. Paul turned the dial many times to see just how far back it really would go. “Wow!” Paul said with much surprise. “The time can go all the way to 65 Million years BC!” Just then, Gino said, “Ok great Paul, I’m here, let’s go!” And Gino quickly pressed the Noobis-14 start button before Paul could change it back to 1780. “NOOOOOO!!” screamed Paul, but it was already too late. All the lights dimmed for a moment. Gino thought, “What in the world is Paul yelling about?

  The lights went near dark and Noobis-14 shook violently. The computer almost vibrated off the mounts. When the time machine stopped, both boys were out cold. Slowly, Gino opened his eyes and America 1780 didn’t look like he thought it would. “Hey Paul, wake up!” Gino yelled. “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” The first thing they noticed was how extremely hot it was. The humidity was off the charts.

  There were so many loud sounds, birds screaming and other various sounds that neither Paul nor Gino recognized. “I want to go home!” Paul cried out. “Come on Paul, we just got here, let’s go out and se
e if we can find General Washington,” stated Gino. The boys covered the Noobis-14 with pine boughs to make sure no one would see the time machine and damage or take it.

  Everything seemed so large and green, thought Gino. The plants had huge leaves and Ferns were everywhere. The boys were expecting to hear cannons firing off in the distance, but the only sounds they could hear were those of screaming birds. There was a lot of smoke rising in the horizon and they thought it might be a battle in progress, so they traveled in that direction.

  “We don’t want to get lost, Gino replied. “We don’t want to get so far from the Noobis-14 that we won’t be able to find her or we will never be able to get home and I don’t want to be late for dinner!” Paul just wanted to go home.

  Suddenly there was a dark shadow on the ground that blocked all the sunlight. It looked like an airplane, but as I looked up it scared me so much I couldn’t even talk. It was a real life Pteranodon. It had swooped down upon us and tried to snatch us up, but we ducked quickly at the last second and it missed us. “Oh man, oh man, screamed Gino, what did you set the time machines timer to Paul?” We aren’t in the 1700’s, we are in the Cretaceous Period! With that information, Gino suddenly realized that they had ventured back in time nearly 65 million years. “I tried to warn you Gino, but you hit the start button before I was able to stop you. I wanted to see how far back the computer could be set!”