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“You know, I’ve never seen
anything like this place.”
“What do you mean?” Whit replied
from beneath Daddy’s time machine.
“The time anomalies.” I gestured
to the PAD, or Portable Anomaly Detector. “They’re so frequent here, and the temporal
activity is higher than—”
“Well, that’s part of the reason
I decided to come to Odyssey. All the strange activity—though even Odyssey’s
never had this much. But I figured I could do something with it.”
“Yeah. Good thing you like
tinkering, or Adan and I might both be in trouble.”
“You mentioned him before. How do
you know him?”
**
“She and her father visited my
time some years ago. Eruanna returned most often, to visit her bookshop. She
seems to have great interest in—” Adan flinched.
“Careful, Mr. Sterling! I won’t
be able to do it properly if you keep doing that!”
Adan at once became still, but
his eyes looked around. They were in the back room of Herod’s General Store,
where Ms. Track—the bell woman—was bandaging his shoulder. Tall metal shelves surrounded
them, covered in boxes (mostly empty), odds and ends, his own coat and
gauntlet, and Ms. Track’s red Salvation Army bucket.
She spoke again. “I suppose
you’re close friends. Since you’re so worried about her.”
“Indeed. Especially, though, because
of what happened before we were separated.” His fists clenched. “And I have no
way of returning, no way to protect her or anything else.”
“I’m sure it’s terribly
frustrating, especially for one such as you.” She cleared her throat, and he
knew she meant for an elf. She had
mentioned the fact every minute since he told her, always with a strange look
in her eyes.
She tied the bandage and sighed.
“I understand—wishing you could do something, but can’t. I can’t. Not anymore. I’ve led them all astray.” She looked very
sad and distant.
“Yet you have helped me, and for
that, I thank you.” Adan rose, and bowed slightly. If only you could help me reach Eruanna again, he thought.
**
“How are the repairs going?”
“Well,” Whit said, as he came out
from under the vehicle, “I was able to fix the engine, so it’ll drive normally.
The rest of the instruments are fine—except the core.”
“Uh-oh. What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s pretty damaged. From the
looks of these blueprints you gave me, it won’t be able to generate the power
needed for time travel.” My eyes widened, but he continued. “On its own, at
least. I think I can rig it up to harness outside energy, but… well, there’s
not much that could generate the amount you need.”
“Yeah, only something like a
continual time vortex, or a bolt of lightning.” I smiled a little. Too bad we can’t go Back to the Future on
this thing, I thought. I mean, who
knows when either of those things might hit?
**
Ms. Track gasped. “Heavens,
what’s that?”
Adan followed her gaze and
spotted an empty box, being pulled up toward a thin streak of blue light.
Before anything more could be said, it vanished through, and the light was
gone.
“One of Eruanna’s ‘disturbances’,
I believe. They bring objects—and people—between times.”
“Those things that brought you
here?” She gave Adan no time to answer before gasping offendedly and leaping
forward. “Don’t you take my bucket!” She grabbed ahold of her red bucket and jerked
it away from another rift, which had nearly sucked it in. As the rift vanished,
she pointed frantically behind Adan. “Oh, your things!”
Adan turned and saw his gauntlet
disappearing through another rift, and his other things being pulled upward.
These he managed to grab, but the gauntlet was gone.
“That was a bigger one,” she noted.
“I could even see an old Model T through it before it closed! Oh!” The last was
said because an even larger rift had opened near the door that led outside. It began
pulling her toward it, feet skidding. Adan pulled her back by the arms, just
out of its alter-gravitational reach. They watched as the rift widened and grew
brighter.
**
The PAD started beeping rapidly.
I looked at its display, and gasped.
“What is it?”
“It says there’s a big rift
opening nearby!”
“Nearby… as in right through
there, maybe?” Whit pointed to a wooden door at the other end of his workshop:
one with light glowing through its cracks. Whit and I immediately came over,
and I pulled open the door.
It led to an old tunnel, held up
by wooden beams. But that was secondary to the huge rift widening inside it. I
had to grab the side of the doorframe to keep my footing secure. As we stood
there, the rift grew to the size of the tunnel itself. The walls seemed to be
glowing, too. But unlike the other rifts I had seen, it showed no signs of
vanishing, or fading at all. Its light flickered once or twice, but it did not
disappear.
“Of course!” Whit cried excitedly.
“It must have interacted with the mineral in the tunnel! I’ve always known what
a powerful conductor it can be, but—but this!”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Whit,
I—I know about the mineral, but what does this mean?”
“It means we have a continual
time vortex.” Whit went back into the workshop. “Keep an eye on it! I’m going
to rig the time machine to harness its temporal energy.”
As he said that, the significance
of it hit me. I would finally have a way to time travel again! I could find
Adan!
**
“Look! You can see to the other
side!” Ms. Track exclaimed and pointed.
Adan peered closer as an image
became clearer in the rift—more like a vortex now. At first, all that could be
seen was a dim figure and vague surroundings. However, as it became more
distinct, a look of surprise grew on his face. He cried out. “Eruanna!”
I heard my own name and looked
around in confusion. I could have sworn I heard… But then, I looked back at the
vortex, and there I saw Adan! Not only alive and well, but standing right
across from me! I made to go through the vortex, but just then, a woman on the
other side (whom I hadn’t noticed before) knocked against a box, making it
catch in the gravitational pull. It soared through the vortex. Just as it went
through, the vortex flickered again, hiding the other side in a bright flash.
The box fell at my feet, halved.
Just then, Whit returned. “I’ve
fixed the core so it can harness the vortex, but the machine will have to be
right inside it to work, so—”
“Whit, look! It’s Adan! He’s
right on the other side of the vortex!”
“Well, what do you know?”
“But Whit, a box got pulled
through from that side, and… look!” I gestured down to the cardboard halves.
“The vortex flickered, and this happened!”
“Hmm.” Whit looked at the vortex,
which flickered again. “From what I can tell, the vortex is becoming unstable.
It’s being sustained on this end, but the mineral isn’t strong enough to keep
it going indefinitely. If we could…” Whit stepped forward. “Adan, can you hear
me?”
“Very clearly, sir!”
“We have a way to get you and
Grace back in time, but this time vortex needs to be sustained on your side for
it to work!”
“How might we do that?”
“Well, the simplest way would be
to find something conductive and brace the sides of the vortex like walls. Look
for something made of lead, or maybe—”
“Of course!” I was surprised to
hear a woman’s voice. The woman on Adan’s side of the rift began pulling items
off shelves behind her. Adan said something to her that I couldn’t hear. She
half-shouted, “The shelves, they’re made of lead! That’s why I asked Mr. Herod to
let me have one of his old ones a few months ago—I used the lead poles for my
scarecrow! Didn’t work, though. Gnomes still ruined the crop.” She pulled the
last box off of one shelf, and tried to move it away from the wall. Adan took
hold of it and began pushing it toward the vortex.
“While they do that,” Whit told
me, “we’d better get your father’s machine into position.”
**
Adan had pushed the first shelf
up beside the vortex, and they were pushing the second. It was easier, the
closer they got, because of the vortex’s alter-gravitational pull. Finally, the
tall shelf was set up parallel to the first one. When it was in place, the
vortex flashed once brightly. Then, it ceased to flicker, and the image of the
other side grew clearer.
Meanwhile, I got in the time
machine and carefully drove it into the tunnel. When we got up close, Whit
called out: “Is it stabilized on your end?”
“Yes,” Adan replied. “The shelves
are in place, sir!”
“It looks like it’s stable,” Whit
said to me.
“Any changes I need to know
about?”
“No, everything works the same.
But you’ll only be able to use the temporal energy for one trip, so make sure
you know where you’re going.”
“Don’t worry. I know exactly
where to go.”
“Then, God be with you.”
I smiled. “You too, Whit.”
Whit stood up straight and waved
his arms. “Alright, she’s coming through!” And right before I moved the car
forward, I just know I heard him mutter “Well, let’s see if this thing works.”
I inched the vehicle into the
vortex, so it was halfway in Bethlehem, and halfway in Odyssey. The vortex
didn’t flicker once. I stopped the car and flipped on the instruments. Sure
enough, they worked perfectly. I began to input the destination, then heard
Adan’s voice.
“You have been a great help
indeed, Ms. Track. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” the woman
replied, “sir elf. And merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas.” Adan bowed his
head. Then he opened the door and got inside the time machine.
I leaned over and hugged him
quickly. “It’s great to see you again, Adan.”
“I feel the same.” He smiled—really smiled this time. “Where are we
going?”
I flipped switches, which would
harness the temporal energy of the vortex for our trip. “To the place all these
anomalies started.” I pushed the lever, sending us soaring through time, space,
and reality. “Home.”
---
Well, happy Back to the Future Day!
Yes, today is the third anniversary of the future, and therefore, even though it’s not quite my Back to the Future post from last year, I decided to put up Part Four of my little time travel story today. And I certainly hope you enjoyed! It was a bit more sci-fi than usual, I think—all that talk about minerals and alter-gravitational pulls and continual time rifts, oh my! It was actually pretty fun to come up with, though. I’ve been finding more and more how much fun it is to figure out the scientific laws of my storyworlds.
Well, Adan and I finally managed to find each other, didn’t we? But as you can tell from the final sentence—the final word, even—this story isn’t over yet. Part Five will be posted sometime in our remaining two months of 2018 (how does time go so fast?), if not Part Six as well.
If you missed any of the previous parts (or simply wish to refresh your memory), here are the links to each of them:
Also, if any of you are unfamiliar with the Adventures in Odyssey radio show, or if the reference to a mineral and a tunnel rang no bells, the Blackgaard Saga of Adventures in Odyssey is the best place to start. Or if you are familiar with those things, and are curious about more Odyssey theories, keep an ear out for the Odyssey Decoder Ring Podcast. I happen to know that their second episode will include at least one theory along similar lines. (And that Agent 2362 in the Ring Table Discussion is amazing! Wow! ;) )
Oh, and by the way, I thought I’d
mention a new feature I’ll be including in future posts. At the end of each
post, I will be putting a question or two of some kind, for everyone reading
out there on the internet, pertaining to whatever the blogpost is about. Leave
a comment below, if you like. I’d love to hear—er, read—your thoughts!
I suppose that will be the end of this post, then. See you soon, and happy Back to the Future Day!
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