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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!
 
 

What do you think will happen next in my Time Traveller's Daughter story?

What are your thoughts on time travel?

 
 

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