A Glint In Time (History and Time)
Page 6
The team talked for a few minutes and then they moved to the rubber boat that would take them to the reef. Janet and Bill moved ahead and talked intensely. "Great idea, Sally." Ted said as they lingered behind. "Hey, how do you know what a thirty-eight caliber round looks like?" he asked.
"Single girl in Atlanta. I went through the handgun course and I've got a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Georgia. I've never pulled it out, but I feel better having it." Sally kept walking.
"What do you carry?" Ted persisted.
"A nine millimeter Glock. Parts made in Germany and assembled in Atlanta." she replied. "But I don't have it here. I didn't think I'd need it, do I?"
"Listen, Sally, " Ted said.He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "if things ever go sour here in Indonesia, stick with me. The whole idea of what we're doing is scary enough, but some how I don't trust these Woo guys as far as I can throw them. And I don't mean throw them back in time either."
Sally squeezed his hand and agreed,"It didn't sound right from the very beginning, Ted. It still sounds funny now. I don't know what kind of trouble there might be, but I'll watch for
your lead. But God, Ted, how I wish it would work! How I wish there was no damn Vietnam war!"
They walked silently, still holding hands, the rest of the way to the boat. Underwater, there was no way to talk, but Sally stayed close to Ted the whole time. A few hours after the dive they saw the sunset in the helicopter back to the Ammero Group headquarters. Sally had her head on Ted's shoulder and his arm was around her. It was a beautiful sunset, but to Sally it appeared very very red.
DARK DECISION
Wednesday, August 23, 1995
1 100 Indonesian Western Standard Time
Ammero Group Compound
Indonesia
* * *
Retrieved image and sound.
Source TS/ Blackwatch Action
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET / BLACKWATCH
"I agree. If necessary. No one must know."
* * *
The three Woo brothers were in Jaya's office. He sat behind a desk that was hand carved, but not massive. The other two sat in low guest chairs facing the desk. The air was blue with smoke.
"When will they return?" James Woo asked his brother. "Not for another two hours." Sonyato Woo replied. Jaya turned to James, "Is what they found useful to us?"
"Yes, that's why I had the technicians report the high temperature readings and the need for maintenance. My people and I are not as experienced and don't have the same cultural references as the Americans. So, we've been working all day to re-run everything they did and then
extend it forward in time. Because it was late in the day when they made their discovery, they stopped and didn't look for consequences."
Sonyato asked, "What kinds of consequences?"
James replied, "When we went forward we found events that would not bother us, but would be very difficult for the Americans. We have made modifications to the databases and placed blocks in the logic so they will not see these consequences."
Jaya said, "I will make other contingency plans in case they are needed. A car accident, a helicopter accident. Either one is ready."
Sonyato was agitated. "I hope it would not come to that. He paused, searching. If their President Kennedy is the key, then why not just kill his assassin before he shoots?"
"It is not that easy." James replied. "How do we know exactly where the assassin was at specific time? How accurate can we be in the transmission? He would be a moving target behind a dark screen."
"And knowing the Americans," Jaya said, "they would not cooperate in finding that target even if it meant stopping a war." He made a dismissive gesture. "We will listen to their plans. But we must also plan for any circumstances. The Russians too."
"I agree." Sonyato. "If necessary. No one must know. We will watch them."
PRYING EYES
Thursday, August 24, 1995
0630 Indonesian
Western Standard Time
Ammero Group Compound
Indonesia
* * *
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Brigadier General Ted Arthurs
Recorded May 2006
CLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL /TA
"I felt I could trust Sally and Bill, but my orders were to keep strict security. It strained relationships."
* * *
The next morning Sally woke early from a troubled sleep. She came back from the bathroom, flopped down on the bed, and watched the first rays of the sun filter though the drapes and hit the ceiling.Through her half-closed eyes, she saw a glint of light high in the ceiling. It was bright just for an instant. At first, her brain processed the light as a passing curiosity, but then her discussion with Ted made her come awake. The bright spot on the wall was now dark. It was a little spot, but it was just about the same size as the spot that Bill had shown her in Destin. It looked like the lens for a television camera.
Sally didn't look at the spot on the wall. She got up and did what she thought were natural looking things in order to get closer to the wall. Then she plastered herself against the wall, hopefully out of sight of the lens, and examined it from below. She could just make out a little convex glass lens. If the Woo boys had a video camera looking into her room, what were they up to?
At seven o'clock the next morning, each American received a phone call from Sonny Woo. It was a conference call and Sonny was excited, "The system is back up. Sorry it took so long, but we had to get a new cooling pump."
"We'll be there in... what gang? Fifteen minutes?" Bill asked on the line.
"You'll be ten minutes late, Bill." Sally said. She hung up the phone and started for the door. They all met in the hallway and Bill laughed. Sally was thoughtful.
"Kinda anxious, aren't we?" Ted said.
That morning the team started intense work. There were many scenarios leading away from Joe Kennedy Junior's successful return from the war. Some scenarios had Jack Kennedy as president with Joe as his prime advisor and other scenarios had the order the other way, with Joe Junior as president. But in every case, the president survived and there was no large scale American intrusion into Vietnam. Interestingly, while the Bay of Pigs invasion still took place, it was pre-ordained before a Kennedy administration ever took office, there was no Cuban Missile Crisis.According to
the computer, under the new conditions the Castro regime established relations with the US.
"I don't get that." Bill said. I have never found the point where the program has decided that the presence of Joe Junior on the national scene somehow defuses the Cuban Missile Crisis."
"But you agree that it does?" Ted asked. They were talking on the intercom. Everyone was working through potential threads of history looking for any reasons why they should not make the changes they had proposed.
"Yeah, it just seems to fade into a non-event. As if the Soviets decided never to install the missiles or maybe the US Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which Kruschev thought justified the presence of similar missiles in Cuba, were withdrawn when they were supposed to have been.. nearly a year before the crisis."
Another day went by and the American team went for a walk and a talk. By unspoken agreement, they didn't tell the Woo family about Sally's idea of sending small capacitors back in time. Ted and Sally had built a mini scenario, but since no one really knew why Kennedy's plane exploded they couldn't really use computer scenarios to judge the impact of sending the devices back in time.
"It's the best idea we've got." Sally said as they walked.
"And," Janet added, "we haven't seen any negatives come out of it."
"I wish we could test things on a smaller scale." Bill complained. "I'm afraid of making changes without more experimental data."
Sally was a little surprised when Janet spoke up, "We ae losing our options, Bill. It seems strange to say, but we're running out of time." Janet ignored the grunts and chuckles she got in response to her comment. "
The farther back in time we try to send these capacitors, the less accurate we get, the more power it takes, the hotter they get, and the fewer we can send per day. Like throwing a ball, the downward curve gets increasingly steeper at the end of the span you can reach. As you throw harder, you get less accuracy. I'm not an engineer, or a physicist, or a ball player, but the effects seem clear."
Bill was silent as they walked to the river and back. "Okay, let's talk to the Woo boys and lay out the plan. It will take them some time to get the capacitors, won't it, Sally?"
"Yes, I guess so. I've got some ideas for things we can do to modern products to make them recognizable to a technician in 1943."
"Okay, then it takes them more time to line up their time machine, I'm sure. In the meanwhile, we can look for glitches in the plan."
Sally gave Ted a look and jerked her head slightly. Ted raised an eyebrow and hung back with her while Bill and Janet walked ahead. "I don't mean to sound paranoid, but I think maybe I've spotted a television camera lens in my room."
"Which one?" he asked.
"What do you mean, which one?" she whispered tightly.
"The one over the door or the one opposite the windows?" Ted replied innocently.
"You mean there are two television lenses in my room and you knew about them?" she asked with increasing but controlled fury.
"Well, there's two in everybody's room. The phones are the audio transmitters. Did you go sneak up on the lens that you saw? They must have enjoyed the view from the other side."
By this time, Sally was speechless. She made a few choking sounds, so Ted continued. "Look, I don't know why those cameras and microphones are there. Maybe they aren't even turned on. Maybe they're for security. I'll admit they're suspicious, I guess they make you pretty mad, but I just don't know what these guys are up to. That's why I try to suggest taking walks when we have something to talk about. Oh yeah, and now you know why I've never come knocking on your door in the evening to borrow a cup of sugar." He threw an arm around her waist, turned her around, and planted a sweet kiss on her lips. Then he took half a step back, still holding her hand.
"Damn," she said with a smile, "I thought you were just slow.Now I know that you're camera shy.Can those cameras see in the dark?"
"Probably not if it's really totally dark. But, what fun is that?"
GET THE PARTS
Thursday, August 24, 1995
0900 Indonesian Western
Standard Time
Ammero Group Compound
Indonesia
* * *
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Brigadier General Ted Arthurs
Recorded May 2006
CLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL /TA
"The need for action was becoming obvious."
* * *
Bill started the meeting with the Woo family by explaining the important role of Joe Kennedy Senior and his sons in American politics. He described their personalities and the incredible political power that Joe Senior had gathered through the Democratic party. Then he described the competition between Joe Junior and Jack and the desperate mission that Joe Junior had undertaken in order to overcome Jack's apparent role as a hero.
"But," the oldest Woo asked, "did not Jack lose his ship, this PT 109 Boat, in a collision in the middle of the night without firing a shot? That would seem to be an action of bad seamanship, not something a hero does."
"The use of PR, press relations, was common among the Rockefellers and Kennedys. Even in those days they could give news the right spin." Bill replied.
Sally noted to herself that among his many talents, and despite some of his faults, Bill was a realist with a lot of insight. But then it was her turn to present her idea.
At Ted's insistence, she tried to ignore any thoughts about camera lenses in here room and to settle on the job at hand. After all, Ted explained, she could stop a war and hopefully have a father. That was pretty good motivation. Sally explained about capacitors and their function of draining off radio the frequency energy that set off the explosives in Kennedy's plane. James, the physicist in the group, nodded, popped open a laptop computer, and entered some data. While James worked, Sally continued.
"Today's bypass capacitors can be the size of a pencil point. What your company will have to do is to encapsulate modern capacitors in a small glass or ceramic tube about the size of a 1943 capacitor, leave the wire leads sticking out, and then etch the tube with the capacitive value and a voltage rating so the technicians will know what they are and how to use them. The values are still standard, so the only real problem is encapsulation and etching. That shouldn't be difficult or expensive."
Sonny Woo had been in America too long. He couldn't appear passive. "I'll, I'll get to it immediately! Sally, I'll need your help!" He waved Sally out of the room ahead of him, apparently on the way to find someone who knew where to get electronic parts.
James spoke up, "Making some assumptions about weight and mass, we'll only be able to transmit about six of these a day. Each shot will fully deplete the lasers and we'll have to re-charge and cool everything down between each shot. The items we send will all show up within approximately one hundred minutes of each other and they'll cover a circle with a radius of more than 300 meters."
"That's why we suggest targeting the parking ramp around the airplane." Ted said. "It will look like there was a spill from a cargo pallet on a passing truck or something. It's an open area, they'll be seen, and they'll probably wind up in the right hands. "
"We will have to ask our corporate people in England to pinpoint the site." James continued. "They'll have to do research there locally to find the exact location.We need to know exactly where that airplane, the ramp, and any work areas were and what the area looked like."
"I can help you with that." Janet said. "I have contacts in historical societies throughout England."
A few minutes later, Bill and Ted found themselves together in the computer room.
"Well," Bill said, "Let's see if we can find any other alternatives or problems. We don't know exactly what we're doing, but we'd better make sure that we do no harm." The two worked late.Sally checked in with Bill and Ted when she got back from the city. She reported success and then went to her room to get some sleep.
The next morning Sally found Ted waiting for what had become their usual pre-breakfast walk. Ted's stolen kiss had led to a lot of passion under the trees on the side of the quiet path.Sally was ready to hang some towels over the TV cameras lenses in her room, but despite the explicit offer Ted wasn't ready to alienate the watchers. That led to some unusual tension between them.
"Well, how did you do with the capacitors?" Ted asked.
She fished in her pocket before she replied and handed Ted something that appeared to be a tiny colored glob of ceramic material hanging on two wires. "It turns out that several companies make these things in Malaysia and the Woo's ships carry them. James found a shipment and liberated a box of a couple of hundred pieces. When he left me yesterday he was on his way to get them coated in ceramic or glass to make them look like the older capacitors. He might be done today."
"Wow," Ted replied. "Things move fast."
"If it stops that war, it can't come too soon for me." Sally replied.
"Yeah, but Bill's caution is contagious. We worked past midnight looking at different options and scenarios. We can't find anything wrong, but Bill says it still doesn't feel right and I think he's right. Let me ask you something that I thought about this morning while I was shaving."
"Do you get a lot of good ideas while you're shaving?" she asked. She reached over and put her hand on his smooth cheek.
"Yeah, sometimes I get a lot of ideas. period."He ducked away. "Now cut that out. I'm serious. Listen, is there some way to get into the computer network in Florida? Can I try some of the same changes on that software and database?
"Sure," she said with assurance.“The satellite communications link is still up. I've been us
ing it to access some North American historical databases through the local area network in the beach house in Florida. I can make a laptop computer a remote node into the Florida network. It won't be anyplace near as fast as being on a local connection, but if you only want to do a limited amount of work it will be fast enough."
"Yeah,“Ted said. "I'd like to do that."
"But you verified that they have the same program and the same database running here, didn't you?"
"We checked what we could. But there's a lot of code in this system and you never know without comparative runs. I just want to submit this one scenario to the Florida system and see what it comes up with. And Sally, can we do this quietly? Let's not tell anyone?"
"Okay, let's head back and get breakfast like normal. Then, I'll set up a laptop in the communications room. I'll
come by your console and smile at you when it's ready. Or," she paused, "will that be too suspicious?"
Without a word, Ted bent over, blew in Sally's ear, and started back to the computer room at a slow jog. Sally yelped and started after him at a run.
After breakfast, it took Sally only a few minutes to connect a laptop computer to the Florida system over the satellite link. She made a few checks to see if Ted could effectively use the system. It was slow and the small screen on the laptop computer made it much more difficult to use the program, but it worked. She walked into the main console area and smiled at Ted, who smiled back. She busied herself at another console and noticed that Ted waited fifteen minutes before going into the communications room. It was nearly two hours before he came out.
Ted wandered out of the communications room and headed in the direction of the single bathroom. It was another half an hour before he came back and Sally was almost a nervous wreck. "How about a walk before lunch?" he said innocently.
They were well away from the building when Ted said, "Keep walking and let's talk normally. It's not good Sal. At least I think it's not. I started out by erasing Joe Junior's death and putting him back into the national scene. Then I moved forward in time to see the divergent changes. Sal, we never got to the Vietnam War. That part is true. But we didn't get there because there was something big that happened before Vietnam started. I couldn't tell what it was, I'm not