The Dragonfly is back in the hanger, although you’d never
know it. After all it’s still invisible.
The transport bubble shimmers into existence. The bubble pops with a soft sigh, and six
people emerge chattering about digital processing and tape saturation
simulation. Just your average conversation.
Jimi, Janis and Paul continue on down the hall at Zero 1
Mars base. Dee and Jim stop at the elevator door.
Dee, “So, can you explain to me why Paul
looks so young? I’m assuming this isn’t the current Paul, but Paul from the
past.”
Jim, “Well, that’s correct. We had quite
an adventure picking up Janis. I’ll tell you about it another time. In the
process we sort of accidentally ran into Paul. Janis let it slip that we’re
having this jam. Paul wanted to come along, and here we are.”
Dee, “But, I met him years ago. If you’ve
picked him up from an earlier time, that means we must take him back sooner or
later. Which also means, looking at it logically, that he should have known me
already when we met at Air Studios.”
Jim, “True. Maybe he did. After we’re finished
jamming he’s going back to the very moment we picked him up and take his own
place again.”
Dee, “Huh, say what?”
Jim, “He knew you but also knew you won’t
know him. So he pretended, or will pretend, not to know you, so you won’t know
that he knows you. Simple?”
Dee, “Right. I’m sure glad I was asleep!
Sounds a bit too much like an excellent adventure to me. As long as we have a
great jam, and I can’t think of anyone I would rather have as a guest! Let’s
get up to the surface, I want to show you the studio.”
The studio is part of a Time Bubble complex on the surface
of Mars. Dee and Jim arrive in an elevator, which is clearly a cylindrical Time
Bubble. The door shimmers translucent blue as it opens.
They enter the studio, which is a half sphere of Time Bubble
protruding from the surface of Mars. The view is spectacular. The surface of
Mars is wild, cold and untamed while inside the bubble it’s safe and warm.
A drum kit, amps, guitars, and even a grand piano are spread
out under the alien sky clearly waiting for a Cosmic Jam.
A rotating orb floats serenely near the ceiling. Beyond that
the Earth is softly glowing in the cloudy Martian dusk.
Jim, “Nice studio, but where are the
microphones and cables?”
Dee, “There aren’t any! Well, not exactly.
The orb up there, is a 16 dimensional microphone.” It continuously samples the
air in here by creating microscopic Time Bubbles and retrieving them, measuring
the air density within and turning that flow of data into digital audio. It can
be programmed remotely to provide as many channels as required, picked out of
the air from any location in the known universe, including of course, this
room.”
Jim, “So, the engineer can choose to mike
anything anywhere.”
Dee, “And they can choose from thousands
of classic digital microphone simulations and pick up patterns, even mikes that
have never existed. You can create your own if you want.”
Jim, “Doesn’t that make recording more
difficult? Too many options?”
Dee, “Well, I leave those things up to the
computer. There are no cables because all the equipment is wireless, again
using a digital stream of encoded microscopic Time Bubbles. Wires are not
required.”
Jim, “In your wildest dreams could you
ever have imagined, even a few years ago, that you’d be standing on the surface
of Mars, preparing to participate in a jam with some of the greatest pop music
icons of all time, even Jimi?”
Dee, “No. But sometimes life can take a
direction you never expected.”
Jim, “That must be one of the greatest
understatements ever!”
Dee, “Only
Time Will Tell.”
Jim sits down at the piano.
Jim, “Speaking of Time…”
Dee, “If you’re wondering about Tara’s
sister-in-law, I think we can help. I think we must help. Now that we are
pretty darn sure of where she might be found, we could choose when to pick her
up.”
Dee’s
Notes:
It
was almost eight years earlier that the first attempt to reach a distant star
left Earth on route to Alpha Centauri. On board, one person, willing to risk
all and suffer through years of loneliness to achieve greatness. The story had
touched the hearts of many. She was not only leaving behind friends and family,
but also her husband. The trip was expected to take roughly fifty years, but
because of the relative nature of the Universe she would not have aged more
than a few years. The age difference between her and her husband would be
great, but they had accepted this fate, and made their peace. It just so
happens that her husband is Tara’s brother. The public never knew her name. Her
name was Sarah.
At
the time it was a great mission, our first attempts to reach out into the
Universe. The ship was built and launched from a base on Uranus. Sarah and her
husband lived there for several years, and devoted a large part of their lives
to the project. After discovering the Time Bubble, the project seemed like a
shockingly futile effort.
Jim, “If, and it’s a big ‘if’, we can
calculate her most likely location in space, at this point in time, we could
zip over there in the Dragonfly and pick her up. My guess is she’d be thrilled
to get a ride home! And she’s only been gone about eight years by our
reckoning.”
Dee, “Why not pick her up a few years in
the future, just when she arrives at her destination. Then she gets the
satisfaction of completing her mission, and her ‘age difference’ problem will
be reduced to only six or seven years.”
Jim, “I’ll meet you at the Dragonfly in
one hour.”
Dee, “Cool!”
On the bridge of the Dragonfly, Dee, Jim and Jimi are
discussing the plan. They’re hovering in space near Uranus. On the view screen
is a close view of the planet, dark and mysterious.
Dee, “This is where her journey began.
They built a base on Uranus to launch the star ship. The atomic drive would
have caused some pretty nasty radiation when it was first fired up. As it moved
through space faster and faster, until it reached the speed of light, it would
have run more efficiently as the speed increased.”
Jim, “The computer has plotted a likely
course, taking into account the acceleration characteristics of the craft.
Shall we?”
The scene on the screen, changes instantly to show an alien
planetary system.
Dee, “We’re here!”
Jim, “And we’re about at the right time to
pick her up, if everything went according to plan.”
Jimi, “And if it didn’t, we’ll have to go
around and try again, right?”
Jim, “True.”
Dee, “We’re in luck the computer has located
her. Right there, near the third planet from the sun.”
Jimi, “Not necessarily stoned, but
beautiful.”
Dee, “Exactly. Let’s pick her up. I’m
going to move in.”
They move so quickly that in a moment the view screen is
filled with a small space craft. It’s immediately obvious that it’s not in very
good shape. The hull is scarred and there are several visible holes.
Dee, “Oh no! That can’t be good.”
Jimi, “Stoned.”
Jim, “It does look like it’s been hit with
a meteor shower, or attacked.”
Dee, “We’re bringing it aboard.”
Soon they are standing deep
in the belly of the Dragonfly. Sarah’s ship is beached on the floor of the
cavernous warehouse. It’s a small ship, but still very large when you stand
next to it. Maybe four times the size of a transport trailer.
Dee, “I want to see if we can find out
what happened to her.”
Jimi, “Are we going on board?”
Dee, “The computer shows no life on board,
and no sign of Sarah. It might be best if we sent in a probe bubble.”
Jim, “Or just go in a bubble ourselves.”
Dee pulls out his card, and presses the edge. Moments later
the bubble hovers inside the bridge of Sarah’s stricken craft. There is no sign
of life. There is however, a message faintly burned into the dead control
screen.
Six minutes.
Back at Zero 1 Mars base, Dee, Jim and Jimi are standing in
the media room. The view screen shows two guests arriving in a Time Bubble. It
swoops sedately in through the roof as if the kilometer of rock and sand above
the ceiling doesn’t exist. We can clearly see the occupants, one is holding a
guitar case. They are both smiling and are clearly having a great time.
Dee, “Cool! Ken and Michele are here. I’m
hoping to head on up to the studio soon, that’s where the party will be
tonight.”
Jim, “And what about Sarah?”
Dee, “Well, I have a theory.”
Jimi, “Aliens took her, and left a recipe
for over boiled eggs?”
Dee, “I think I left that message.”
Jim, “How so?”
Dee, “Remember when the teenager on Earth
said that I’d Been Here Before? I
think he was talking about more than the CD title.”
Jim, “You think you’ve actually been there
before?”
Dee, “Well, there’s no reason why not. The
Time Bubble lets us go anywhere, anytime. I’ve been around the entire Universe
quite a few times now, so have you. Who’s to say we won’t go there again, but
arrive a bit earlier? One thing I would like to avoid, if possible, is meeting
myself.”
Jim, “How very Star Trek of you!”
Dee, “Hey, it seems like each day I get
older, I just don’t want to meet myself. The mirror is quite enough, thank
you!”
Jimi, “I thought the Universe would end or
something like that…”
Dee, “Nonsense. If I’m stupid enough to go
to a place and time when I’m going to run into myself, I’ll just run into
myself. There’s no paradox there. You’ve not had the benefit of seeing hundreds
of sci-fi movies and TV shows that involve time travel. I’ve seen every
scenario possible.”
Jim, “Maybe not. So what are we supposed
to do?”
Dee, “Go back to six minutes before the
time we already went forward to! Pretty obvious isn’t it?”
Jimi, “Won’t we have to be careful not to
cross our own path? That’s not much time difference. And what could have
happened to her in six minutes?”
Dee, “I have no idea, but there’s one way
to find out.”
Dee’s Notes:
Although there seems to be no classic
time paradox, and no obvious dangers from travelling through time, there
certainly is a danger of forgetting the way home. To avoid this potential
disaster, I have been mapping the Universe with remote probes, a complex task
that requires far more than the standard 3 dimensions.
During this process, probes were often
sent out beyond the edges of our Universe. For the most part the video probes
recorded nothing but endless black Ether. However, I was able to retrieve a few
faint images of other Universes, distant and not connected to our Universe in
any way. I have not attempted to explore them, there is no easy frame of
reference, and getting home would be very difficult.
Back on the bridge of the Dragonfly Dee, Jim and Ken are
staring at the screen. Uranus fills the screen but this time the view is just a
little different.
Ken, “Hey, a jam sounded like a good idea,
but this is way more fun!”
Dee, “It’s a really nice view, but we have
a job to do. At the moment we’re hiding from ourselves. We should be just the
other side of the planet right now. Jimi didn’t want to risk meeting himself,
if we wanted to do that we could do it right now!”
Jim, “Why not go straight to the Alpha
Centauri system six minutes ahead of ourselves?”
Dee, “We will, I just wanted to get a
reference. This should do it.”
Dee presses the keypad.
Instantly Sarah’s craft appears on the screen. It is just as badly damaged as
before.
Dee, “This time Ken and I are going. Jim,
please stay here. If anything happens and we don’t return right away, I hope
you’ll come after us.”
Jim, “Right. I hope so too!”
Dee and Ken are in the belly
of the Dragonfly. Sarah’s ship is still lying dead on the floor.
Dee, “It’s really strange to think that
the very same ship is outside right now.”
Ken, “Sure is, but hadn’t we better get
moving? We only had six minutes and two are gone.”
Dee, “And away we go…”
They are swept out through
the wall into space by a soft green Time Bubble. Both let out a gasp of air, as
the surroundings transform from the interior of a warehouse to the vastness of
space.
The bubble zooms up to the dead space ship, right through
the walls and into the control room. There is Sarah, lying on a mattress, close
to death.
Dee, “There’s almost no air in here. We
can’t go outside the bubble and grab her, but I can easily snag her with a
bubble.”
In a few seconds Sarah is surrounded by a newly formed Time
Bubble. It rises into the air carrying her through the walls of the larger
bubble containing Dee and Ken. As soon as Sarah is safely aboard, Dee leans
over as if to press a key.
Dee, (hesitating) “One moment, the message.”
Ken, “Sarah’s computer is still on, but
the power is fading rapidly. You might still be able to send a command to it.”
Dee presses a few more keys, and they are whisked from the
room into deep space again.
It is no less of a shock to the senses the second time, but
they are through the walls of the Dragonfly in a flash. Jim sets the controls
of the Dragonfly and moments later they are home.
Back in Sarah’s ship the power is about to die. On the
screen the message appears.
Six minutes.
The screen grows very bright, much too bright, until
something sparks and the power goes completely dead. There on the screen is the
message, burned into the blackness just enough to read.
Outside the Dragonfly is arriving.