Timeless **not done**

I was selected to use <i>the machine</i>.

The scientist hadn't published anything about it in the mainstream magazines. <I>Popular Science</i> hadn't whispered a word. <I>Discover Magazine</i> didn't have a clue. The staff at <I>American Scientist</i> hadn't been told a single thing. But the only bit of news ever breathed about it, an ad, was right there in front of me.

<B>Wanted: Man or Woman of Cosmological, Historical, and a Physics science background. A health record of three years or more.</b>

That was it. There was nothing left except the address which, as I learned when I Googled it, was only a few miles out of the city surrounded by forest in hill country.

Before I tell you about my journey I need to tell you about myself. I was thirty-nine years old and I was in need of a job. I also had a background as an anthropologist and a unique interest in the stars, the galaxies, and the universe in general. My wife had always been befuddled about that- how I was basically a professor of the most narcissist science- anthropology- and a student of the most selfless- astronomy and cosmology. I think she would've supported my choice to join the team.

I say think, because she wasn't alive to be there. Nine months before she had died at the hands of a clump of cancerous cells. The word 'think' might be a little too underrated of a term. I <I>know</i> she would've wanted me to join the team. We both had had an interest in science, all the way since we were little kindergardeners on the playground. She wasn't a tomboy by a long shot- way too pretty for it- but when I came by with my little green caterpillars she would allow her self to get swept away in my inaccurate counting of 'cater-legs.' Through Junior High and High School and through college the sharing remained the same. She would tell me of her science experiment that showed how the chances of 'Uno' cards could be played to make you win in a minimum of thirty turns and I in turn would show her how the Mongol empires had expanded and contracted based off cultural acceptance.

We were sweethearts.

And that is exactly why I know she would've wanted me to take the job. Besides- I need the money after nine months of joblessness.

Three days after reading the ad I went to the address. Stepping out of the car I found myself at the bottom of a round, silver tower about five stories high.

Greeted almost immediately I was ushered into the tower were a psychologist asked me basic questions. "How old was I" and "when was the last time I was sick." All of the questions didn't really phase me, I had asked the same ones when I had to travel abroad. The interview was going good up to that point. The psychologist was scribbling notes and asking me more friendly questions as if I would be a good candidate.

Then he asked if I had any family. Without thinking I answered in return: "My wife is deceased- no children."

He frowned immediately and his pen became invisible as it sped up. There was silence for the next few moments as he wrote and I twiddled my thumbs. Then he bid me farewell and told me that they would call me.

As I drove home through the green hillside I thought of my last nine months of depressed sitcom watching- they never, ever call. That is, unless they are scientist, and they did call. The answer was on my messaging machine. <I>Yes.</I>

I was selected to use <i>the machine</i>.

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Three weeks later I had a full understanding of what I was know laying in. A large pod-shaped device filled with water, magnets, and wires. It the OPM, or the Omnipotent machine. A mixture of science and guess work the machine had the potential to carry a consciousness- a human consciousness- anywhere at anytime in the universe.

Three weeks later I was also strapped down into it. Water covered my stripped body and darkness surrounded me. There was no air available to me except a tube that ran straight into my lungs. A hum, a quiet, constant hum, filled my ears only interrupted by brief "Are you okay" messages from the team.

Then the countdown began. The hum almost disappeared as the directors and assistants and countless other people went down the checklist. The water was fine. The pumps and generators were fine. The extraction process was optimal as well. Everything they needed as the machine to simply be turned on.

And it was.

The mixture of voices, the sounds of people, stopped in an instance. Silence lingered for a short time afterwards before there was a sudden hum. The sound of electricity, of metal, all came into my ears in a long, loud roar. It almost felt as if the water around me was losing its density as it shook in the sound-waves and then it became denser.

Heat was the next sensation I felt. It burned through my chest and I felt it boil my blood. At first it was barely tangible in the cold water, but the exponential change caught me unaware and surged through my body.

Acceleration, like on a rocket, was the next thing I felt. It was a powerful blast that pressed violently upon me. It shook me as it tried to squash me and I could feel the wires and tubes around me- floating as if nothing was happening.

I tried to cry out next. The heat, the pressure, it was too much for me. It was creating pain that I was sure couldn't be expected in such an experiment. Had any moon astronaut been forced to stand on the sun? Had any acceleration  test forced a person to bear witness to thousands of G's?

No, but there I felt I was. I just wanted the heat to go away. I wanted the pressure to let me relax.

And then it did...
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