Mary Jane Kelly: discovered 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on Friday 9 November 1888.
Joseph wrote down the information he garnered from the computer and scribbled next to it: Why does the newsboy say there were six killings?
He went back and activated the hologram and watched as the newsboy held one of the newspapers over his head. Joseph stopped the hologram at that spot. Next he pressed the zoom button on the hologram machine and the view zoomed in tight on the newspaper. The big man shook his head as he left the seat and opened the door.
Sitting outside of the room was Ted, the young man in charge of sending out and receiving back, the mechanical hologram gathers. Joseph was glad that there was always one of the hologram group outside the door while the Time Watchers were going through the newly arrived holograms they supplied.
“Hey, Ted. Could you get the group together for me? Say, in about one hour?”
Ted put down his reading device and said as he stood, “Sure will, Mister Sergi.” He took out his communicator and started to dial as Joseph went back into the Time Watchers conference room.
Guess my meatball hero sandwich just has to wait awhile, he thought as his stomach rumbled in rebellion.
One hour later the rest of the Time Watchers greeted him and all of the seats were full, . . . but one. Joseph pushed back the lock of hair in his eyes and did a mental check of the members.
John Hyder, he thought, then Marryellen Muldey, next to her is Alexis Shuntly and that leaves Jerry Sullivan missing.
Just then the door opened and Jerry walked in. He had a big smile on his face as he walked over to Joseph and put a twelve-inch, cylindrically shaped, aluminum foil package in front of him.
“Joseph,” he said, “when I got the message that the group was called to a meeting, I checked my duty roster and saw that it was you on duty. Also, as you were getting close to the end of your tour, I was sure that you were starving. So,” he said as he pointed to an object on the table, “I thought you might enjoy a hot, meatball hero sandwich.”
The group broke into laughter as a huge grin spread across Joseph’s face.
“Jerry Sullivan,” he said, “you are a friend indeed!”
Jerry slapped his friend’s back, handed him a batch of napkins and took his seat as Joseph quickly unwrapped one end, took a bite and rolled his eyes.
“Now down to business,” he said as he wiped his chin of the dripping red sauce. “I was going through the holograms that were taken in London, England, Sunday, December 4, 1888. The scene showed Fleet Street and the daily papers were just coming out. As was the norm, the young newsboys shouted the headlines to get people’s attention and make a sale. This time it was about Jack the Ripper’s latest victim. Well, I heard one of them say, . . .“ he stopped talking and inserted the hologram. “Here, listen to what the boy yells out.”
The group leaned closer to the hologram and when the boy shouted: “Victim number six. . . ” they looked at each other.
“So,” said Maryellen Muldey as she shrugged her shoulders making her gray hair bounce off her shoulders. “Is he wrong about something?”
Before Joseph could answer, John Hyder sat back in his chair and said as he scratched his long, blond and gray sideburns, “I believe he is. I’m pretty sure only five women were murdered.”
“Only?” said Alexis Shuntly, her big green eyes looking even larger behind the thick lenses as she raised her eyebrows.
John shook his head as he clarified his statement: “Ooops! Sorry, Alexis. I didn’t mean to trivialize the number of women killed by this madman. What I meant was that the number of women killed was less than the number on the boy’s newspaper and that we must look into this before it happens.”
Joseph stood and nodded as he raised his hand to get the group’s attention. “I think the first thing we must do is send back a probe to see if we can get the name of the sixth woman and see about stopping her from being killed.”
Alexis held up her hand and after getting their attention, said, “I think we need to send back a crawling probe as we did in the Amelia Earhart mission.” (Author’s note: Amelia Earhart Mission, Book IV.) “One that can enter the newspaper room and gather the information that we need.”
Joseph looked around and said, “All in favor of sending back a probe, raise your hands.”
All of the members of the Time Watcher Group raised their hands in agreement and Joseph opened the door and caught the eye of the young man sitting just outside of the door.
“Ted, we need a new probe to go back to London, England and check out something for us and the suggestion is that we use a crawler. Will you take care of that?”
“Yes, sir. There’s a new model I’ve been wanting to try out and this sounds like the perfect time to activate it,” answered Ted as he wrote in his notebook. “As usual I’ll need the date and location.”
“It’s early Sunday morning, December 4, 1888: The Times Of London on Fleet Street. We need the copy of the Sunday morning edition.”
“Yes sir. I’ll have it by nine tomorrow morning.”
“Fine, and thanks, Ted,” Joseph said as he entered the room and fingered the sandwich. “Okay, guys and gals. Why don’t we take a break and be back in here at,” he looked at his watch, “let’s say 9 am.” He sat and attacked the sandwich as the group left him to finish his tour.
Ted went down to the basement of the tall building they were located in and entered an unmarked door with his passkey. The lights came on as soon as the motion sensor felt his presence. He entered another room and the lights came on as the others behind him went off. The Probe Technician loosened his tie as he looked at the many types of Time Probes he had used over the years. Locked in a display case behind tamper proof glass was twenty-six various types of probes. Most were flying ‘bots and they mimicked birds, butterflies and other flying insects. Along with them were a few crawling ‘bots. These were usually used to enter a place such as an office, to read and bring back the needed information. They were in the shape of mice, large spiders and such. All were capable of crawling up a wall and along the ceiling. All of the bots were outfitted with GPS units, audio, mini-television cameras, and infrared lenses that could zoom in on the object they needed to record.
Ted smiled as he opened the glass door and removed a three-inch in diameter, black, round crawler sporting six folded arms. He opened the bottom and removed a small, thin wafer of a battery. Next he placed the battery on a test rig with a meter on the end. Immediately the meter showed that the battery had a forty-five percent charge so he placed it in another device and depressed a red button. A slight hum and the meter’s needle quivered and jumped to the charging mode. Next the technician went back to the display case and removed an Albatross bot, one of the largest probes with a six-foot wingspan. He checked its battery and as it was low at fifty-six percent, he placed it in another charger.
A pleased Ted went and sat at a console and entered: Date; Saturday, December 3, 1888: Time; 8 am. Another hum told him that the Time Portal door was set at the correct date.
He spoke to himself as he went down a checklist: “Crawler, powering up; Albatross, powering up, Time Portal door, set and ready.” He spun his chair around and stopped as he faced the coffee pot. “Old fashioned, drip coffee pot, full, hot and ready.” He got up, poured a cup and sat back down as he waited for the batteries to get a full charge.
Ten minutes later a low beeping sounded from the charger of the Albatross bot’s battery and Ted removed it and placed it back in the belly compartment of the flying ‘bot. No sooner had he finished when a second beeping told him that the crawler’s battery was full. He placed the battery in the crawler and took them to a white plastic table. Ted put the Albatross ‘bot on it’s back and then placed the crawler on the replica bird’s belly securing it beneath the bird ‘bot with securing hooks. Next he grabbed a stack of newspapers, picked up the joined ‘bots and entered another room. This room was sixty-feet lon
g by thirty wide and contained a long, white plastic table. He placed the newspapers on the end of the table and then placed ‘bots on the other end of the table and left the room. He went to the console and his fingers danced over the keys sending commands to the ‘bots in the large room.
A screen came alive and showed the mated ‘bots on the table. Suddenly the Albatross stood, spread it’s wings and with a short gallop on the tabletop leaped into the air. The technician deftly worked a small control stick which sent commands to the bird ‘bot. The Albatross raced towards the end of the room before making a gliding turn sending it back towards the table. It landed gently and at another command released the securing hooks, dropping the crawler a few inches onto the tabletop. The Albatross stood still as Ted sent commands to the crawler and it deftly unfolded its six legs and rose. Another command and the crawler started walking on its spindly legs. Ted flipped another switch and a second screen showed the view from the crawler’s point of view as it approached the stack of newspapers. He had the crawler grab the newspaper and, by holding the front page with two of its mechanical arms, walk backwards, opening the newspaper. Next the ‘bot walked over the page scanning all that was printed on it and sending the information back to another computer in the room. Finished, it went back and folded its legs, settling low on the table. The albatross ‘bot waddled over to the crawler and settled on it as the securing hooks took hold. It was now ready to fly the crawler home.
“Success!” Ted whispered as he read the newspaper on his console. He then went back into the room, retrieved the two ‘bots and went to the time portal door. The small indicator affixed to the door read: December 3, 1888: Time: 8 am. Satisfied, he opened the door, went down the stairs and opened the door at the bottom.
DATE: DECEMBER 3, 1888 PLACE: THE 1800 CLUB’S GARDEN, NEW YORK
Remembering the poor quality of the air he was about to breathe, the Time Probe Technician took shallow breaths as he walked out into the garden and placed the joined ‘bots on the ground. He took a quick peek outside of the gate in front of the garden and grinned as he saw a small, black carriage pulled by a white horse going by, it’s steel-rimmed wheels bouncing off the hard cobblestones. A young man and girl dressed with high collars and earmuffs to ward off the December chill went by chatting happily in the brisk weather. Ted went back up to his own time.
DATE: 2069 PLACE: TIME WATCHERS GROUP, NEW YORK CITY
Back in the Time Probe’s room, Ted took a sip of his coffee and faced the control panel. He flicked a switch and the view showed what the Albatross saw. Next he sent flight commands and the view showed the garden’s wall getting closer as the ‘bot raced forward with it’s large wings spread, finally lifting off and floating over the wall.
“Next stop: London, England,” Ted said as he finished his coffee.
An hour later he checked the ‘bot as it flew across the Atlantic Ocean of 1888. The technician was thrilled to think that his ‘bot was the fastest mechanical device of 1888.
The weather was clear and the bird ‘bot was on course and making good time. Ted looked at the information streaming across the bottom of the computer’s screen: Estimated landing time: 7:00 am Sunday morning, December 4, 1888: Location: The Times Of London newspaper offices on Fleet Street.
Ted ordered a dinner of steak and potatoes to be delivered by the company’s cafeteria, kicked off his shoes and put his feet up as he worked out his plan.
One. Every fifteen minutes check the progress of the mated ‘bots as they flew across the ocean. Two. Guide the crawler as it crawls into the Times Of London building and Three. Fly the mated ‘bots home.
He scratched the stubble on his chin as he thought, Once I get the crawler inside the building I’ll have to improvise.
For the rest of the night, the Time Probe Technician checked his probes, making sure they were on time and course. The night went by fairly fast and there was just one problem when a rainsquall popped up suddenly and the turbulence threw the two ‘bots around for ten minutes. He sighed a sigh of relief when they popped out into the clear, still on time and course. Finally, the Albatross’s TV picked up lights in the distance and Ted saw that the reading from it’s GPS showed that the ‘bots were approaching Ireland. He allowed himself a smile and poured another cup of coffee as the distant lights became brighter as the ‘bots flew on.
Finally, his computer screen showed the aerial view of London. Ted directed the probes to the center of the city and put them in a holding pattern as he took a bearing on the world famous newspaper building. Entering the coordinates into his command computer, he commanded the ‘bot to fly due east and the ‘bot banked and glided as it found its target.
Ted checked the time for London and saw that they had arrived early as it was 6:55 am London time.
“Great,” he said as he took the small control stick in his hand. “Earlier than planned but that’s good for us. Gives us more time to get the info.” Ted spotted a flat landing spot next to the tall chimney and glided the Albatross into a nice landing. He unlocked the hooks that held the crawler tight to the Albatrosses’ belly and switched to the view seen by the crawler. He tested the crawler’s TV, infrared and scanning tools before sending the ‘bot to work.
The view from the crawler showed the edge of the roof and he commanded it to go to the edge and climb down the side of the three story, red brick building. Ted knew from past experiences that the weight of the printing presses demanded that they be placed in the building’s basement and that was the ‘bot’s destination. Because of the chill in the December air most windows were closed and it took the ‘bot five minutes to locate an open window and it scampered in and panned the room.
It was a stockroom filled with large rolls of paper and the crawler climbed immediately to its high ceiling. Ted was happy to find that the old building had many dark shadows for it to hide in and the small probe went from shadow to shadow as its TV scanned the room for the exit.
Spotting an open door, Ted had it enter another room. The TV showed that the crawler was in a washroom and he sent it on to the next room. Suddenly the pounding and vibrations of a press starting up got his attention and he directed the ‘bot towards the room where the noise emanated from.
“Jackpot!” exclaimed Ted as the view showed the large machinery operating and spitting out newspaper sheets as pressmen checked the quality of the paper. One of them grabbed a page fresh off the press and placed it on a large flat wooden table. Two other men quickly looked the page over as they checked for any typographic errors before they gave a thumbs up on the final run that the people of London would read with their tea this Sunday morning.
Ted commanded the crawler to move along the ceiling until it was stationed right above the table with the open newspaper. Once again the view from the crawler showed the placement was perfect and it started scanning the flat pages spread out beneath it.
Ted copied the text in real-time onto a blank hologram as the crawler copied the information the Time Group needed.
It took the crawler ten minutes to copy all the pages. Ted then walked the ‘bot out of the room and out the window it had entered by. He next commanded the crawler back up to the Albatross ‘bot up on the roof. Once again the crawler folded its legs allowing the Albatross to stand over it as the hooks engaged and secured them together. Finally, Ted commanded the bird ‘bot to take off and follow the same route back to the club.
He looked at the clock and thought, Perfect! The Time Watchers should be coming back to the conference room about now. I’ll drop the hologram off and get some sleep. The ‘bots will land on the roof and I’ll retrieve them later.
He went back to the conference room and sitting out front was James, another Probe Tech, which meant the group was in session. He nodded to his companion as he tapped on the door and Joseph opened it.
“Good morning Mister Sergi. Here’s the hologram of the newspaper.”
Joseph took the hologram and with a smile said, “Ted, thank you so much. Now,
go get some sleep. I know you’ve been up all night.”
The Time Watcher Group sat eating pastries and sipping coffee as Joseph returned to the room and placed the hologram in the center of the mahogany table.
“Now, let’s see who Jack the Ripper would make his sixth victim.”
Joseph pushed back his long black hair and activated the hologram. The scene opened in the basement where the sound of a large printing press boomed from the hologram. The workers they saw were communicating with hand signals as all had wads of cotton stuffed in their ears. The walls trembled at the vibration of the huge machine and flecks of red paint fell from the bricks to the floor. Big newspaper pages were spread out on a long wooden table. Every now and then the figure of a man filled the screen as he bent over the flat table and checked for any typographical errors, but the ‘bot was programmed to make sure it got a clean picture of every page.
“Here it is,” said Joseph as he enlarged the top half of the Sunday paper.”
The group all leaned closer and read the copy.
At 4:00 a.m. this very morning, Officer Thomas Wallace found another victim of Jack The Ripper at Sydney and Victorian Streets. She is thought to have been killed about 1 a.m., as Officer Wallace had patrolled the same street no later than 12:45 a.m. and she had been dead for about three hours when he found her at 4 a.m. How, you may ask do we know it is the work of this madman? Simple! Her body showed the same slash marks as the other poor women. No, it is the hand of the Ripper who did this terrible deed and this newspaper demands to know when the police will put an end to his deeds! The luckless woman was Jeanine Larsen and the papers and travel tickets in her purse, found beneath her body, claimed she had just arrived from the United States of America on December 3 – just one day ago on the passenger ship, Servia. What her business was is not known and this newspaper will gladly accept any information about the young lady and pass it on to the authorities.
Time Travel Adventures of the 1800 Club Book VIII Page 8