Golem 7 (Meridian Series)

by John Schettler

  Physicists were still taking pokes at Einstein. The CERN research institute near Geneva recently announced they had measured particles that had to be exceeding the speed of light. It was only a matter of getting somewhere 60 nanoseconds sooner than expected, but it was enough to raise a lot of eyebrows in the physics community. It meant, in one possible application, that it would be possible to send information back through Time, something Paul could clearly confirm now if ever asked around the water cooler conversations at the Berkeley Lab facilities, though he could never speak a word of this to anyone outside the four core members of the project. Even the interns and lower level staff had been banned from the main facilities after that first mission. The team could take no chance that the true purpose and utility of the Arch would ever become generally known. If the government ever discovered what they were doing here it would be confiscated and shut down in a heartbeat. In that event he had little doubt that a new Time War would soon begin.

  It was a very slippery slope, he knew. Others would reason that if information could be sent back in Time, matter and people would come into the discussion shortly thereafter. He smiled inwardly when he learned that Steven Hawking had remarked: “It is premature to comment on this. Further experiments and clarifications are needed.”

  Paul could write them all a book, but the more he considered things, the more questions piled up, one on top of another. Perhaps LeGrand and Aziz may have answered a few for him, but he knew they were also constrained to limit the amount of information they revealed—particularly to a Prime Mover. If ever there was a Prime Mover, Paul and the other Founders certainly filled the bill. He shuddered to think that the simple act of reaching a majority opinion in their discussion over what to do about the Bismarck campaign had an immediate effect—even extending to the operation of the technology and equipment they used!

  Be careful what you wish for, went the old maxim… You may get it. And what did he have hanging round his neck now, a strange relic that should never have been found, or left, where it was discovered.

  A curious man, he immediately applied a little forensic investigation to the key, regretting that he had twiddled with it in his pocket and largely extinguished any finger prints he might have found on it. Yet a little non invasive scan revealed something very interesting, for this key was not what it seemed at all. It was hollow! There was something inside it, and he would spend a good bit of time thinking about that before he went any further, or even whispered the fact to his closest associates.

  There was something inside it! The metal end, machined to engage lock tumblers, had clearly been designed for some other purpose as well, and this turned the cylinders of his mind, opening a universe of possibilities. What was it, he wondered? Surely the contents would tell him where it had come from, and what its purpose was, he thought.

  Now all he had to do was find out how to open the damn thing. Yet, being inventive and resourceful, he soon answered that challenge. He found that the head of the key could be turned with sufficient torque, and slowly unscrewed. He still remembered that moment of breathless opening, when everything he ever knew and believed turned at the head of that key, and its slow untwisting became the great unraveling of all that ever was. When he finally had it open, and tilted the shaft ever so gently to urge the hidden contents out onto a lab dish, he stared with amazement and perplexity at what he had found.

  Days later he knew the answer to many of his questions, and he also knew why there had been no answer from the distant future when Aziz and LeGrand had called out to their successive generations. From that day forward his life, and his entire understanding of the world he lived in, was never the same. But who to tell?

  He would spend a long time thinking about that before he ever spoke a word of this key again. Yet it was something too big for him to carry alone. Like Frodo’s ring it began to weigh upon him, seeming heavier and heavier with each day that passed. But unlike Frodo, there was no place he could take it and cast it away, and there was no way he could simply forget about it either…not this…not this…

  Then one sunny afternoon at his cottage in Carmel, he was sitting with his good friend Kelly, down on a getaway visit while Maeve and Robert stood watch back in Berkeley. They had been walking on the coastline of Asilomar that day, and dined at one of Paul’s favorite restaurants, the Sardine Factory in Monterey. Now they were drinking wine in the cottage, looking at some of Kelly’s photo albums, and listening to the music they loved and shared together, talking over things in a way only two very old friends could. The music played on in the background and Kelly came in with a good bottle of Pinot Noir from Paul’s wine rack.

  It was now or never, thought Paul. “Kelly,” Paul said quietly. “Before we open that, sit down for a moment, will you? There’s something very, very important I have to tell you…”

  He knew the moment he opened his mouth he would pass this hidden knowledge on to his friend, germ like, and Kelly’s life, already made wholly new in the this altered Meridian, would change once again. He, too, would never be the same. He hesitated briefly, thinking to leave his friend in the relative innocence and simplicity of his life, to leave him unbothered, unburdened, unaware. But if this would eventually lead them all to renewed Time missions, the whole project team would have to be informed. He could bear it no longer. The sheer loneliness of carrying the key, and all he knew about it now, was like a great weight crushing down on his soul.

  He reached into his shirt and slowly drew out the key on its chain, feeling like Gandalf visiting Frodo in the Shire, there to tell him what the quaint little magic ring was really all about.

  For one last moment he waited. Then he spoke. “It’s about this key,” he said…

  Later that night the Arch was still slowly spinning on low power mode back in the Berkeley Hills, just enough to keep the systems energized and ready for quick startup if needed. The project team was taking no chances. They wanted to be able to monitor the newly enforced cease fire closely. The Golem Module was to be in use 24/7, now strongly reinforced with the addition of many installations active again on the east coast of the United States. Boston was still there, as was New York, Baltimore and Washington. Florida was no longer a flooded wreck. The Palma disaster had never happened.

  At around four A.M. that evening, the Golem Module suddenly came to life again. The threat warning filters had been jarred awake by a lone sentry, while the world slept, blissfully unaware of the impending danger. Normally it would take an assessment from at least three Golem Banks to trigger a warning like this, a call to arms as it were. At Paul’s urging, however, the system had been reconfigured by Kelly to move into alert mode if just one Golem Bank reported sufficient evidence of a variation. So the alarm went out again, the threat module responded and sent start signals to the main turbines, and the low thrum of the Arch immediately revved up from 20% to 40% power, just enough to open and sustain a small Nexus Point around the facility.

  One of the Golem Banks had found something oddly incongruous while it performed its routine scans of data available on the Internet. It was out of alignment with at least fifteen data points in the RAM Bank, and so the digital “stand to” had been sounded again by the vigilance of this single search cluster.

  It was Kelly’s lost sheep again, Golem 7.

  TIME GLOSSARY - Terminology

  From Dorland’s Theory

  ABSOLUTE CERTIANTY - A condition brought about by willful determination that serves to limit variation in the continuum, creating a kind of tunnel in the Time Meridian that restricts outcomes to an absolute certainty.

  ATTENUATION - A property of an incomplete Time shift, where the traveler manifests across a range of several milliseconds, slightly out of synch or phase with his correct manifestation point.

  CLARITY – Clear or good understanding of a temporal locus, pattern, event, Outcome or Consequence.

  CO-LOCATION - The presence of an object transported back through time to any point or Meridian on the c
ontinuum where that object existed. This is expressly forbidden by Time, and therefore impossible. In like manner, no person can ever shift in Time to a point where they co-locate with themselves.

  EXCEPTION: See Vanishing Point.

  CONSEQUENCE – An undesired result achieved by a temporal Transformation – Usually referring to the negative. (i.e.) Sometimes certain Consequences must be accepted in order to achieve a desired Outcome.

  CONVOLUTION – The relative difficulty or complexity of a given temporal event or condition.

  DEEP NEXUS – Sometimes called a “Void” – A crucial, significant Nexus Point where radical alteration of the time line is possible. A Deep Nexus has a universal effect on all moments in Time until resolved, and can therefore be a portal into any potential Meridian passing through the Nexus.

  DENSITY – A relative term describing factor counts in temporal events.

  ELASTICITY – The tendency of Time to resist alteration and reassume its original shape. Also known as “Quantum Memory Foam.”

  FACTOR – An element contributing to convolution in temporal events.

  FINALITY – A catastrophic Grand Imperative (like the Cuthulu asteroid strike that led to the eradication of the dinosaurs and other life.)

  FREE RADICAL – A dangerous, erratic variable in the course of temporal events – usually only existing within a Deep Nexus.

  GOLEM - A special search program written by Kelly Ramer and distributed to hundreds of thousands of computer users via the Internet. Golems are able to search and report on information on the net and can perceive data on every Meridian during a time of Deep Nexus through the phenomenon known as “Resonance.”

  GREAT VOID – An interminable shadow or Penumbra cast by a Grand Imperative.

  HAZE – Obscurity in the understanding of a temporal situation or event.

  IMPERATIVE – An event in Time which must happen – Usually a natural event. A Grand Imperative is a natural event of special significance. Some Grand Imperatives can become a Finality.

  INEVITABILITY – A progression of events that is inexorable and unalterable.

  INITIATOR – A person directly responsible for a new Time Meridian (Like Mohammed, or Christ). A Prime Mover of great significance.

  LEVER – A secondary contributor to movement in a series of events.

  MERIDIAN – An established line of temporal events on the continuum.

  NEXUS POINT – A point of connection, intersection or branching of one or more Meridians in the Time continuum.

  NODE – A specific point on a Time Meridian.

  OUTCOME – A desired result achieved by a temporal Transformation – Usually referring to the positive.

  PARADOX – Time’s way of correcting errors in the Time continuum. Paradox is a real force, and quite dangerous. It kills or erases people and objects from the Time Meridian when unaccountable complications arise from their actions. A Paradox is NOT simply a thorny problem; it is a real effect and force of annihilation—a kind of “Anti-Time.”

  PENUMBRA – The shadow of influence on future events cast by an Imperative.

  POINT OF ORIGIN – The temporal locus where a person or object becomes a Prime Mover.

  PRIME MOVER – A primary causative lever or agent for an event – usually a person but sometimes an object.

  PUSH POINT – A moment of insignificance that gives rise to a key event on a Time Meridian. Often associated with a Prime Mover.

  QUANTUM KARMA – The influence of causality on a Time Meridian. Each moment on the Meridian affects the next, and certain Prime Movers accumulate an aura of Quantum Karma around them that also has profound effects on the configuration of future moments in Time.

  RADICAL TRANSFORMATION – A catastrophic alteration of the Temporal Condition.

  RESONANCE - Information available in the intersection of a Nexus Point, where many alternate Meridians “resonate” data concerning the outcome of events.

  TEMPORAL CONDITION – The matrix, pattern or state of affairs in a given time period.

  TRANSFORMATION – Any change in a Time Meridian that alters a future Temporal Condition.

  TRANSFORMER – A person who causes a Transformation.

  VANISHING POINT - The exact moment in Time when an object is removed and transported elsewhere in the continuum.

  VARIATION – A subtle change in a Time Meridian that does not significantly alter Temporal Conditions.

  WEIGHT OF OPINION - The culmination and likely outcome of future events as a result of a potential transformation, as perceived and reported by the Golem search cloud.

  WILLFUL EVENT - Events resulting from decisions or actions taken by human beings

  ZOMBIE - The walking dead. A person, fated to die, but whose life has been spared due to a willful intervention in a Time Meridian. Paradox will allow the elimination of a Zombie by restoring the moment of his natural death to the continuum.

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  “The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.”

  —Nathanial Hawthorne

  The pleasure has been mine in writing this, my friends have all been gratified, now it’s your turn! Spread the good word, and thank you so much for reading!

  John Schettler

  The Meridian Series ~ Novels By John Schettler

  Book I: Meridian – A Novel In Time

  ForeWord Magazine’s “Book of the Year”

  2002 Silver Medal Winner for Science Fiction

  The adventure begins on the eve of the greatest experiment ever attempted—Time travel. As the project team meets for their final mission briefing, the last member, arriving late, brings startling news. Catastrophe threatens and the fate of the Western World hangs in the balance. But a visitor from another time arrives bearing clues that will carry the hope of countless generations yet to be born.

  Book II: Nexus Point

  The project team members slowly come to the realization that a “Time War” is being waged by unseen adversaries in the future. The quest for an ancient fossil leads to an amazing discovery hidden in the Jordanian desert. A mysterious group of assassins plot to decide the future course of history, just one battle in a devious campaign that will span the Meridians of time, both future and past.

  Book III: Touchstone

  When Nordhausen follows a hunch and launches a secret time jump mission on his own, he uncovers an operation being run by unknown adversaries from the future. The incident has dramatic repercussions for Kelly Ramer, his place in the time line again threatened by paradox. Kelly’s fate is somehow linked to an ancient Egyptian artifact, once famous the world over, and now a forgotten slab of stone. The result is a harrowing mission to Egypt during the time frame of Napoleon’s 1799 invasion.

  Book IV: Anvil of Fate

  The cryptic ending of Touchstone dovetails perfectly into this next volume as Paul insists that Kelly has survived, and is determined to bring him safely home. Only now is the true meaning of the stela unearthed at Rosetta made apparent—a grand scheme to work a catastrophic transformation of the Meridians, so dramatic and profound in its effect that the disaster at Palma was only a precursor.

  Book V: Golem 7

  Nordhausen is back with new research and his hand on the neck of the new terrorist behind the Palma Event. Now the project team struggles to discover how and where the Assassins have intervened to restore the chaos of Palma, and their search leads them on one of the greatest naval sagas of modern history.

  Other work by John S
chettler

  Kirov – Alternate Military History (Naval) – Available 2012

  The battlecruiser Kirov, is the most power surface combatant that ever put to sea. Built from the bones of all four prior Kirov Class battlecruisers, she is updated with Russia’s most lethal weapons, given back her old name, and commissioned in the year 2020. A year later, with tensions rising to the breaking point between Russia and the West, Kirov is completing her final missile trials in the Arctic Sea when a strange accident transports her to another time. With power no ship in the world can match, much less comprehend, she must decide the fate of nations in the most titanic conflict the world has ever seen—WWII.

  Historical Fiction