The Time Engneers Chap 1-2 (4687 words)

The Time Engineers - Chapter 1

"Things Without Remedy Should Be Without regard: I'm Not a God and Never Played One on TV"

I walk through the maze-like halls of the University of Chicago looking for the Physics Department. My rubber-soled shoes barely make a sound on the polished marble floor. Every minute, I check the map of the facility displayed on my data pad's 4 inch super high-resolution screen to make sure I'm going in the right direction.

I'm a former Navy SEAL commander but for the last 11 years, I've been working for a secret organization called the United Organization for Ethical Evolution and Controlled Technology, UOEECT for short. Our mandate is to protect our timeline by preventing the development or pursuit of technologies with the potential to be dangerous.

This time, "dangerous" included destroying the planet by disrupting the delicate balance in our solar system that keeps planets orbiting the Sun instead of crashing into each other like bumper cars and a 0.78% probability of weakening the quantum boundaries between alternate timelines.

The Chrono-Analysts and the quantum supercomputer known as the Master Temporal Planning Computer which we call the MTPC, calculate that there is a 22.6% probability that Dr. Joseph Adler's experiment to create a micro black hole in the next five years, might create something bigger than a "micro black hole." If successful, the resulting potentially limitless energy would change the world. Adler would take his place alongside Fermi, Chandrasekhar, and the other Nobel laureates produced by the University of Chicago. But that will never happen because my job is to sabotage it.

Finally, I arrive. I glance up at the gleaming metal letters mounted on the wall that announce, "Department of Physics - The University of Chicago." What's the morality of sabotaging the work of this brilliant researcher, knowing that micro black hole energy technology will be developed in the next 15 years anyway, and that my organization, UOEECT, already uses it?

This job is like playing God except in this case the "god" is the Master Temporal Planning Computer. Would humanity ever be wise enough to develop technology without endangering itself or, if you believe the MTPC, all of reality? I don't know, but should a soulless supercomputer be the judge, jury, and executioner? What about the 77.4% probability that his micro black hole experiment succeeds? I've been with UOEECT for 11 years, maybe that's long enough.

I sigh and take a deep breath as I approached his lab. It's time to complete the mission, recriminations can wait.

"Rikki, take care of the door code, please."

"Alright Will." I heard a click,

"Thanks, Rikki. Your hacking skills could make us rich!"

"I'm an artificial intelligence. I have no need for money." She responds.

"Rikki, that was a joke." I say.

"Apologies, Will. I still am trying to understand the nuances of human communication."

Rikki is my Artificial Intelligence partner. Like the MTPC, she is quantum-based but programmed to be "human." Sometimes, when I speak to her, it's like I'm talking to a real person. Not this time, though. She monitors my life signs and "knows" if I'm upset and always asks me if I want to talk about. Sometimes, I do, sometimes I don't.

I enter Dr. Adler's lab. It's impressive. Electronics cover the walls. Blinking lights dance over the workstations and consoles, like fireflies. There's a low hum which reverberates throughout the lab giving only the smallest hint of the energies needed to create a micro black hole. This is one of the most advanced particle accelerators in the world. It would be over 1800 meters long if it were straight. Powerful super-cooled electromagnets accelerate particles to 99.99999897% of the speed of light.

"Rikki, how are we doing?" I subvocalize to the communicator, pinned to the lapel. My tablet is networked to Rikki, who physically resides in my Multi-Dimensional Travel Device, or MDTD, currently configured to resemble a lime-green 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. "The graviton reactor is powering up to full capacity, Will." She reports.

I approach the 22-foot-tall graviton reactor, a miracle of engineering and physics, but a Pandora's box according to the Master Temporal Planning Computer. Rikki identifies the key systems for me, highlighting where the hair-thin electrodes should be inserted to connect the university network to my data pad. I hold the tablet close to the panel. An almost invisible filament extends from my tablet into the instrument panel, which monitors the graviton generator.

"OK, Rikki, you're on." The timing is crucial; only a computer could have the precision and accuracy needed to perform the operation. As usual, she was perfect.

"The particle accelerator is shutting down," she confirms. Alarms start blaring and red lights flash warnings. "The error codes I generated will direct Dr. Adler and his team to another terminal. You have thirty seconds until he determines that the error occurred somewhere else."

A 2 inches by 3-inch maintenance panel for the particle accelerator slides open silently. I carefully place a one-millimeter piece of beryllium into the particle accelerator. The panel closes, and the filament disappears back into my data pad. On the other side of the room, I watch Dr. Adler scan the error codes.

"It's coming from Maintenance Panel PA-12a!" he shouts. The particle accelerator cycles on. I hear the whine of the coolant pump and a low-pitched whirring sound as the huge electromagnets accelerate electrons to over 99% of the speed of light. "The instruments show a radiation leak! Everyone out!!"

I join the team of scientists fleeing the control room. The reactor powers down as the safety systems shut down the reactor. The displays go dark. Adler slams the wall in frustration and joins his colleagues as they evacuate..

Dr. Adler will never find out who was responsible because Rikki hacked the camera system, erasing any sign that we were ever here.

I break away from the group of scientists and leave the building. Rikki continues to erase video evidence of our deed.

"Nicely done, Will. The universe thanks you."

"Was that sarcasm or irony Rikki?" See what I mean about sounding human sometimes?

I've successfully completed the mission, but I'm not proud or happy; I'm conflicted.

Since the mission was present day, I decide to drive home. Yes, besides being able to travel through time and space, my Multi-Dimensional Transport Device can be driven like a regular car.

I drive along Lake Michigan, taking in the scenery. I open the windows and enjoy the fresh breeze off the lake on a warm dry Indian Summer October day. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I marvel at the beauty and artistry of Nature: The reds and yellow of tall maples and oaks and the bright yellow of ash and poplar trees. There are parks along the lake where families and individuals enjoy the October sun. They're throwing Frisbees and playing fetch with their dogs. There are touch football games, soccer games, even a cross-country meet. Normal people doing normal things. Normal people who I had a 22.6% chance of having saved from a technology disaster.

"Will?" Rikki interrupts my thoughts. "You are uncharacteristically quiet. May I ask why?"

Being a Time Engineer is a lonely job. Other than fellow UOEECT teammates, who can I talk to about my job? Who can I talk to about my doubts and regrets, and right now, the ones I have about destroying Adler's life's work?

"Sorry Rikki. I want to ask you something that may sound strange."

"Will, you can ask me anything that I am not prohibited by my programming from discussing."

"Ok, do you ever have regrets about the missions we go on?"

"Will, regret is a human emotion that I do not share, but I calculate possibilities and probabilities of future events that might arise because of the mission. Sometimes, the results of my calculations suggest that another course of action may have been more favorable." Rikki continues, "I suppose, in that sense, I do 'regret' some of our missions."

"Thanks for answering, Rikki." I'm silent, pondering her puzzling reply.

I turn on to I70 in my 1969 Plymouth Barracuda, drawing more than a few looks from other drivers. As we ease on to the Interstate and accelerate, I ask Rikki to scan for news of the "accident" when an unexpected radiation leak occurred in the University's graviton reactor.

It's hard for me to rationalize the destruction of a brilliant scientist's life work. No one was hurt, but the University trustees and NRC will end Dr. Adler's research. They received an unsolicited e-mail from an unknown party at the University of Chicago (from me) describing the possibility of a radiation accident. The e-mail said that this "accident" could have endangered the researchers and threatened the lives thousands of Chicagoans had the reaction went critical. I wish I could click on "recall e-mail."

I decide to drive longer, that way I'll have more time to feel guilty about what I did. My next assignment isn't for at least two weeks. I'm not excited about having to do the paperwork and get debriefed by my boss, Bret Malkinson.

The October sun casts sharp shadows, and the balmy breeze feels like summer. On either sign of the highway, the recent abundant rains have changed the usual faded greens of the wheat and cornfields to a vibrant emerald green. The sky is a brilliant blue and puffy white cumulus clouds dot the sky.

Last month was a busy one. Before this mission, I visited the DOD as a scientific "consultant" to check on new stealth technology they were working on that used the manipulation of photons. But after reviewing my report, the Master Temporal Planning Computer and analysts calculated they were on a dead-end track leading to negligible or no results for many years.

Before that, I was in Tokyo to interview the director of the University of Tokyo's advanced quantum computer research department. They were within 2 years of successfully building a new advanced Artificial Intelligence. This new AI would far exceed the capabilities of the current generation of artificial intelligences. The Director believed in a few years the Artificial Intelligence could make some types of decisions independent of its programming. Unfortunately for them, only UOEECT may possess that technology.

My mission was to place a fractal computer virus that would appear suddenly, and just as suddenly disappear without a trace. Each time the computer engineers rewrote the antivirus code, another variant of the virus would appear and disappear. It is impossible to create antivirus programs that can remove a fractal computer virus

A favorite example taught by UOEECT instructors about why there needs to be a UOEECT is Atlantis. Yes, there was an Atlantis, and they had technology equivalent to the 20th century. They discovered nuclear fission 12,000 years ago. A Scientocracy governed the Atlanteans. With technology over 100 centuries ahead of the Neolithic civilization of the time, Atlanteans realized they could rule the primitive Neolithic world, or raise it up.

Instead, they developed even more powerful weapons, never sharing their technology with a civilization that had barely advanced past the Stone Age. We don't know why they made that choice. The only clue found was a reference to "a god from beyond the stars" who spoke to the prophets. Was it ET, time travelers like me? No one knows. There was only that single reference engraved on a fragment of an alloy that didn't belong in that time or place.

The Atlanteans built a massive fusion bomb. UOEECT sabotaged it, causing the first underwater test of the H-Bomb to explode with 20 times the force predicted. Giant waves from the massive underwater explosion destroyed Atlantis. Now you know the story of Atlantis.

The loss of life was horrific. 100,000 Atlanteans died from the tsunami caused by the explosion. That's when UOEECT changed its mandate. The new mandate would be to preempt, or halt dangerous technologies, ensuring that they would never discover or develop the technology.

There are many historical examples of how technology hurt or destroyed a civilization. But there are just as many, if not more, examples where technology lifted civilizations.

I decide to complete the mission summary while the details were fresh before going to my country cabin in New Hampshire. Some of us, at least me, question the need to write a report when the tiny recording chip implanted in our brains directly connected to our five senses, records everything. UOEECT insists that the subjective nature of a written mission report is just as valuable. I don't enjoy having a chip implanted in my brain, but it's required for everyone who works at UOEECT. They assure us that the brain chip doesn't record conscious thought, but how can we be certain that's true?

The basis for every mission is probable futures. Some of the probability models showed that Dr. Adler would lose his job. He is married and they have a 2-year-old girl with another on the way and is one of the world's most brilliant scientists in particle physics. The worst-case scenario was he might never work again in his field, but the most likely futures showed him keeping his job as a popular lecturer. Later in his career, he would go back to research.

I thought of the case studies during training that showed examples where technology outstripped the morality and ethics of a society; people died, and sometimes entire societies got destroyed. There were also cases where that did not happen.

"You seem upset, Will. Is it anything you want to talk about?" Rikki offers.

"No, I'm fine, just stressed-out." I lied. "Rikki, let's go straight home. I want to finish the damn mission report." We turn off the interstate. Rikki finds a deserted dirt road that leads to a dilapidated barn with peeling, faded red paint. There are holes in the roof. We can leave from here, although someone may notice the tire tracks which lead into the barn and then disappear.

"I'm always here if you need to talk to someone. Generating the anomaly in 5 seconds, 4,3,2,1."

There is a low hum increasing in pitch and intensity as the anomaly generator revs up. The outside of the windows becomes glazed with frost, a frost of frozen nitrogen and oxygen as the outside temperature indicator to 1.3675k. Even in the climate-controlled interior of my "car" I could feel the chill. A swirling vortex of what looked like fog rapidly grows in front of us. There were bolts of purple and blue energy arcing out from the center like jagged snakes swallowing the car. Then there is utter silence.

"Reentering normal space in 3,2,1" We reappear on a service road that goes through a nearby county park. I drive up the steep hill and make a right turn onto Orchard Rd. My house is the fourth house on the right. It's an older raised ranch built in 1939 with four bedrooms. One bedroom is an office, and the other two bedrooms are mostly unused. I turn into my driveway, open the garage door, and park. I'm home.

The Time Engineers - Chapter 2

"A Garden of Forking Paths: How Does Your Garden Grow?"

I get out of the MDTD and look at my Fitbit. The elapsed time spent in the quantum void was 42 seconds. As always, it feels much longer. I open the door leading to the family room. The pool table is inviting, but I'm not really in the mood. I go upstairs to the kitchen instead.

Time travel is possible and has been for decades. There are many possible futures; some of them are likely to happen and others are unlikely, but they're all possible until they're not.

The future is mutable. What would happen if we never discover or prevent a future technology from being discovered like anti-gravity or zero-point energy used by UOEECT? Who would that William Schachter be and what would he do? Maybe there's an alternate timeline where I never was a Marine and Navy SEAL. In that timeline, would there be a UOEECT or Master Temporal Planning Computer? If not, would that be a bad thing?

The past is immutable, so the "what if I go into the past and kill my grandfather" paradox doesn't exist because whatever you did, or are planning to do in the past, you were supposed to do. However, actions in the present affect the future, but not every action. If you step on a bug in the present, it won't cause a new timeline to develop or affect yours. There's no "Butterfly Effect" except in movies. But if a major technological advance never happens, a worldwide plague or major war occurs, or something of similar magnitude, a new timeline will probably develop. That's what the Master Temporal Planning Computer and chrono-analysts calculate when planning our missions.

The origin of time travel technology and the advanced technology we use has never made sense to me. It's exactly the type of technology that would be the object of a UOEECT mission. Supposedly, time travel and other technology used by UOEECT was or will be discovered in 2037 during the first manned mission to Mars. During the mission, the crew discovered an extra-terrestrial Artificial Intelligence in the wreckage of an alien space probe and bring it back to Earth, where UOEECT gets it. Once it's activated, it provides advanced technology to humanity.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever confirmed this story, but I wonder. If it was programmed, who or what programmed it? That's an important question.

I open my front door and reach into my mailbox to grab the mail. My cover story is that I am a freelance writer and that I'm almost always on the road.

As I was about to go back in, I see my chatty but pleasant neighbor, Mrs. Wolf, working in her garden as she usually does, seven days a week. She's seen me. Jane is about 70. She has a perpetual tan and usually wears her gray hair in a long ponytail. Her face is youthful with an outdoorsy veneer. She's a semi-retired art teacher and is quite talented. Rather than trying to avoid the inevitable, I put my mail back in the mailbox and walk over to her.

"Hello Joan, as usual, your garden looks beautiful."

"Thank you Will. You know, I would be happy to help you with your garden," she says, gesturing towards my sad front lawn with its luxurious growth of dandelions and crabgrass. My bushes and trees look like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

"I love your perennials, but do you know you need to deadhead the flowers when they are done blooming?" she asks.

"I know that thanks to you," I smile, "but with all my travel, I am pretty busy when I get home and never seem to have the time to do it," making the same excuse that I always make. Then, I get an idea.

"Joan, if you're serious about helping me with my garden, what if I give you a few hundred dollars for plants, fertilizer, and whatever else you need? Do you think you can cast some of your magic on my poor garden?"

Her face lights up. "Of course I'm serious. I would love to do that!"

"We have a deal! I'll be on the road again in two days. Can I stop by tomorrow or the next day and give you some cash? I can't wait to see what you can do." I say sincerely.

"Were you anywhere interesting for the last two days?"

Knowing that we would have this conversation, like we always do, I had prepared my cover story.

"I was in Troy, Idaho, reporting on a meeting of the local Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game-Con."

"Didn't they make a movie about that a few years ago with that cute Zooey Deschanel actress?"

Is it possible that she read the book or saw the movie? "You have an excellent memory. Have you read the book or seen the movie?"

"Oh no, and don't take this personally, but I don't care much about science fiction or fantasy. But Danny loves them." She inclines her head towards me and whispers conspiratorially. I look around, but Danny is nowhere in sight. "He has a crush on her and constantly talks about her."

Danny is her 16-year-old nerdy son. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm a fan too, and she's a very talented actor and singer." I say, "Thanks again, Joan. See you tomorrow."

I take my mail, open my front door, and throw it on the counter. Then I walk into the kitchen and grab a beer from the refrigerator and plop down on my well-worn Barcalounger.

I take a deep draught and close my eyes. Rikki was right. I can't get the last mission out of my mind. She knows me well, at least as well as an advanced Artificial Intelligence could "know" me.

I turn on the TV and scan the channels. After 156 stations, nothing catches my eye, but on the 157th station, a news channel, as if on cue, is airing a live interview with the Cook County DA. He is discussing the soon to be proven false charges against Dr. Adler which I arranged.

They cut to his house in Park Ridge, Il. Their wife Sandra, an attractive 30-something, holds their 2-year-old daughter Peyton and dashes into the house as the horde of reporters scream questions at her. Thankfully, they make it into the house, a modest brick colonial. The door slams shut, and the mob disperses. I put my beer down. Now I feel even worse about the damned mission.

"Will, I think you should know that I've received the updated future probabilities." Rikki says, almost hesitantly, which is odd because it's a standard post-mission protocol.

The engineers tell us that the AIs which run the MDTDs don't have emotions. Humans are more comfortable working with AIs like Rikki that are programmed to simulate emotions, rather than with a cold, logical Artificial Intelligence. Sometimes her simulations are so perfect, it's hard to believe that she doesn't have genuine emotions. I swear I hear a note of regret in Rikki's response.

"What do they say, Rikki?"

"His wife leaves him after he is indicted for financial malfeasance and possession of unauthorized materials on his work computer. Upon being indicted for financial malfeasance and possession of unauthorized materials on his work computer, he loses custody rights for their daughter Peyton. The court sentences him to ten years in prison."

I'm dumbfounded. The mission was simple: Stop his research into using micro-black holes to generate power. Ruining his life, destroying his family, getting him accused and convicted of malfeasance and being fired for "unauthorized materials" on his computer were never part of the mission.

Rikki is silent, which is unusual. Then, she says, "In 83.67% of the recalculated probable futures, someone murders Adler in prison or he commits suicide."

Someone doesn't just want to stop Dr. Joseph Adler's research; someone is trying to kill him. What happens to our timeline? Resources and energy scarcity are already occurring. What alternate timelines will be created or destroyed? Most importantly, who did this and why?

Something is very wrong here and I need to figure out what's going on, but I'm exhausted and famished after not eating for over 24 hours. I need to put something in my stomach and get some rest.

"Rikki, please call the China Jasmine Garden and order hot and sour soup, an egg roll, General Tso's Chicken, and green tea ice cream. My usual."

"Yes, Will."

30 minutes later, the doorbell rings. Long, the cook and delivery driver for China Jasmine Garden, is here with my order. I open the door. Long looks like he's about forty years old. He's about six feet tall with short salt and pepper hair. His eyes are dark and serious. He's wearing an apron and a white t-shirt. His shoulders are wide, and his arms are lean and muscular. He's a big baseball fan and when it's not too busy, will talk about it for hours. We exchange some pleasantries and I pay for the food. I give him a big tip and start eating. I have little of an appetite, though.

Even though I'm not hungry, I mechanically eat my dinner as I try to make sense of what happened. What explanation can there be other than someone came in after me and framed him? Now, he faces much more serious charges that will not only ruin his life and destroy his family, but kill him. This is exactly the type of event that can cause an alternate timeline to develop.

"Will," Rikki interrupts my musings. "Peter Cordeaux changed the mission."

"What did you say, Rikki?"

"I didn't say anything." She answers.

"You just told me that Peter Cordeaux changed the mission."

"I'm sorry Will. As you know, I may not disclose mission details of other agents without authorization from headquarters."

Such a vague non-answer is very unlike Rikki. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was being evasive, but why? Even more importantly, how? I'm certain that she told me Cordeaux changed the mission with the apparent goal of deleting Dr. Joseph Adler from history.

"Rikki, please replay the last verbal exchange you and I had."

"Yes, Will,"

"What did you say, Rikki?"

"I didn't say anything." She answers

"You just told me that Peter Cordeaux changed the mission."

"I'm sorry Will. As you know, I may not disclose mission details of other agents without authorization from headquarters."

I don't know what's going on with Rikki. Back to Adler.

"Are you sure you're not describing a low-probability future?" I'm hoping she was, but my experience tells me she wasn't.

"Yes Will, I'm sure of this." It seems like there's uncertainty in Rikki's voice, but that makes little sense.

AIs like Rikki had a 100% record of never making an error since UOEECT with the help of the Artificial Intelligence reverse-engineered and adapted them for UOEECT's use in 1968. It has to be a Time Agent or Time Engineer, or someone from a low probability future with time travel technology who wants to increase the chance of their timeline occurring. I'm puzzled by Rikki's evasiveness; she even changed the audio recording. But why would she do that?

That Peter Cordeaux was involved seems incomprehensible to me. I was born in the Lakehurst, NJ and he was from Sherbrook, Quebec, Canada. We were in the same training class and were partners for a time. We both have track records of success in completing complex, high-impact missions. When there's a dangerous or challenging mission, Peter or I usually get the call.

I take another bite of the egg roll and put what's left in the container and cover it. It goes into my mostly empty refrigerator. There's one more beer, and I put the green tea ice cream in the freezer. I enter the living room, switch on the TV, and tune in to the Syfy channel. I plop down on the recliner and sip my beer. Ironically, Back to the Future Part 2 is on. I finish watching Back to the Future Part 2, looking forward to Part 3, but they are showing the original Karate Kid instead. Mildly disappointed, I turn off the TV, get up from the recliner, walk upstairs, throw off my clothes, put on a pair of pajama shorts, and get into bed.

It's 11:30 PM and I'm exhausted. Yesterday was a long day. It feels like several long days, because traveling through quantum nothingness and the human brain may not be entirely compatible. I start to dictate my report into my laptop but am too tired to continue. I clean up a little and decide to finish it in the morning.

As my head hits the pillow, my eyes close and consciousness flees. The last thought I have is, I need answers and I intend to get them, starting tomorrow at UOEECT Headquarters.