Finding Time 01

In half an hour, we were ready to start up and test the system. I set the controls for my morning 'experiment', explaining to her what I was doing and why, then we tuned into me staring at the camera lens without seeing it.

"But this negates the two hundred mile limit, if we set the focus of the tunnel back a millisecond in time the Earth has moved more than that, we can watch virtually anywhere in real time" she commented after a second or so.

"Yes," I acknowledged, wondering how I missed the obvious.

"It's interesting that the camera is invisible; I wonder how it's capturing the photons."

"I think it's the paradox of changing the past; who knows? We may be creating new universes every time we switch it on," I said, straightening and giving a glance up to the empty space of the camera viewpoint.

She chuckled. "The millions of me's theory - where I can be anybody I want to be."

"That's one way to look at it," I said as she spun the chair around.

"Where do you want to go next? Want to check out the Atlantis legend?" she asked, beaming up at me.

"Santorini, nine thousand years ago. here we come," I replied, stepping to the side as she span the chair back.

I stepped in to adjust the controls on the generator while she started to type in the co-ordinates. Within minutes we'd found the distant earth, and were zooming in on the cloud peppered azure blue of the Mediterranean.

It took us ten more minutes to find the right time period, jumping backwards in steps of a hundred years till we found it pre-eruption. We ran a half split to narrow it further, working our way slowly to the event itself.

It took over an hour to narrow it down to the moments before the eruption occurred. As I shifted to look over her shoulder, we had a front row seat to the biggest explosion I'd seen in my life. We watched the whole island disappear under the rain of fire and ash that streamed out.

Not wanting to witness the death and destruction close up I located us a mile or so away, just under the cloud level, We couldn't help seeing the tiny figures in the water where the tidal wave over took the boats out at sea. It was difficult watching, knowing there was nothing we could do to help them.

I shifted back to the controls as the dust and pyroclastic clouds covered everything, zooming right out to see the ash cloud towering miles in the sky. The thought passed through my mind about how much a volcanologist would like to study the clip we'd just seen. With luck and a couple of months, they would have ringside seats.

"Wow," Sally said as she turned to face me. "It's a pity we can't go and see what Yellowstone was like the last time it went."

"We could see Pompeii, but I think I've had enough fireworks. Let's try something else," I said softly.

"The Globe." She proposed, turning back to the keyboard.

"January first, the year sixteen hundred," I said, giving her the date I was aiming for.

"Okay," she replied as she began to type.

I busily reset my controls, and soon we were in Renaissance London. Of course, we couldn't understand more than one word in ten, which meant we could only guess at what play was being performed, but it was a magical experience to pan through the streets and see how people lived.

We spent till teatime exploring, leaving us both excited as I shut it down. I felt in a celebratory mood, the endless possibilities for academic research buoying me up as they added to the plus side of the equation.

"Have you any plans for this evening?" I asked as I locked up.

"No, I'll probably hang out with the girls in the bar later," she replied, a vague quizzical look on her face.

"I feel like eating out and celebrating with a bottle of wine. Would you like to keep me company?"

"I never turn down a free meal," she replied grinning at me.

She chose Chinese when I gave her the option, and we spent most of the meal talking mainly about what we'd seen. I was amazed that people survived the filth and squalor of sixteenth century London.

We bought the wine on the way home, a convenient Off Licence along the route as I took her back to my place. Despite me being an assistant professor and she a student, I was attracted enough to want to take it a stage further - finding out if she had any interest in me.

So far, the signs had been encouraging. The way she looked at me, the accidental brushes of her hand or elbow when she got close to me. With the right music and the wine, I hoped to make things a bit more touchy feely.

My bed served as my settee, and she sat on that while I unpacked my laptop and put it on my desk.

"Have you got glasses?" she asked from behind me.

"There are cups on the drainer," I replied, turning back to her.

She gave a quick laugh. "This is more like student digs. I lived somewhere like this in the second year."

"I'm still paying for my Doctorate - that and keeping a car on the road doesn't leave much spare," I explained.

"Oh I know. I only get to drive when I'm home for the holidays," she replied as I walked back to the bed.

I picked the wine up as I sat, opening it as she settled next to me. I poured, putting the bottle back on the floor.

"Here's to you getting promoted soon," she said, lifting the cup.

"I'll drink to that if it's a tenured post," I replied with a chuckle.

I made myself comfortable, shifting the pillows aside and leaning against the headboard - one leg folded in front of me and the other dangling with my foot on the floor. She leant back across the bed, half turning to rest facing me on one elbow.

"Shall I put some music on?" I asked to break the silence.

"What have you got?" she asked with a hint of amusement.

"Whatever you want on internet radio," I replied, setting my cup down on the bedside cabinet.

"Contemporary jazz, easy listening."

"Fine," I replied, swinging my leg down to go and retrieve my laptop. "Let's see what we can find."

I brought it back over to the bed and started it, then opened the player and tapped through to the radio, while I let her choose I uncoiled the charger and plugged it in. Next, I brought the speakers over and plugged them in then reclaimed my place.

She'd kicked her shoes off and folded her legs under her, the skirt riding up a few inches. She caught my admiring glance but didn't look uncomfortable or try to pull it down; I felt pleased that she was able to relax in my company.

"Steve, if I write the code, do you think we could take a closer look at the outer planets -- maybe even explore their moons?" She asked as I settled back.

"Yes, anything you want; we can even tour the asteroid belt," I replied as I picked my drink back up.

"Europa is the one I'm interested in; it's got the best chance of life," she added wistfully.

"You write the program; I'll take you there," Even as I said it, I thought of a problem. "We'll have to get an ultra-sonic set up to see anything under the ice. There's no light down there."

"I'll let you sort that out," she said, then after a moment's thought added, "I think a fish finder might work."

"Mm, yes, I'll look into it," I replied before taking a sip of my drink.

We listened to the music until I saw her finish her drink. I'd nearly finished mine as well so I leant down to pick up the bottle.

"Do you want more?" I asked as I sat back up.

"Mm," she nodded, holding out her cup.

I topped up hers then mine, putting the bottle on the cabinet. "What shall we drink to this time?" I asked turning back to her.

"You pick this time," she answered with a grin.

"Hmm," I said in mock consideration. "How about knowledge? The opening of a window into the secrets of the universe."

"Whose secrets, yours or mine?" She chuckled.

"Both, the macro and the micro, from outer space to the inside of an atom." I replied, taking the question seriously.

"S'alright, just my wicked thoughts," she said with a grin. "I was just thinking we're both key players in the, for want of a better word, revolution. I would imagine lots of historians in the future would be looking at every second of what's happening now."

"Welcome to the club, I had that thought a while back. I'm trying not to let it affect me." I took a pointed look around the room. "I would hope that they confine themselves to the relevant bits and not watch everything I do," I continued with a firmer voice.

I gave her a smile. "We're going to have the most analysed relationship in history. The decisions we make are going to be argued over for decades to come. I can see academics pontificating on if we'd done this or that differently, or if we'd known about this or that something."

I stopped and took a sip, waiting for her to reply.

"Will history look kindly at us if we don't get it out? Will people cuss us from the future for opening a Pandora's Box? You've convinced me it's the right thing, I think that they should only be in responsible hands but the people should know. It's too big to keep secret," she said looking at me, studying my face.

"Thanks," I said. "We might be plunging Earth into anarchy, I wonder how much truth the people can handle. Finding out that Moses, Noah, and the rest of them are myths might stop people from believing in biblical morality but I'm hoping the threat of anybody being able to looking over your shoulder anytime will make everyone too paranoid to be anything but fair and honest."

"There are always people who think they can cheat the system," she countered.

"It only takes one person to look and it would be on YouTube in minutes," I argued back. "Everyone who's made a crooked deal in the past would be looking over their shoulders. I can see lots of high profile scandals, lots of seats being vacated. The activists would have a field day researching the opposition."

"Let he who is free from sin cast the first stone," she said with a chuckle.

"Kinda," I said smiling back.

She took a sip and I followed suit. All this talk of watching was counter to where I wanted the conversation to go, reminding her that our intimate moments would be watchable. I was happy enough with the developing friendship and with our working relationship seemingly sealed there was plenty of time for further progress.

"There's going to have to be some limits. You can't let young children have uncontrolled access," she said, resting her cup on her thigh.

"Mm, I was thinking of having them in libraries, schools, municipal offices, under some kind of supervision." With the simple design there were bound to be unregistered devices around. If and how they were protected would be up to the builders.

When we had finished the wine, I walked her back to her dormitory, discussing a redesign of the user interface to control all three variables. When we got to her Hall of Residence she invited me to come up and talk to Emily about the interface design.

Though it was getting late, Emily welcomed us. I think my name impressed her because she was eager to please. She listened attentively as I explained, teasing out the details and eventually proposing an all-in-one solution by offering to combine the interface with a computer controlled signal generator all incorporated into a PCI card.

It was after midnight when we left, the effects of the wine had long worn off but I felt elated with the progress we'd made. Sally walked me down to the door and was surprised when I exuberantly thanked her with a hug as I spoke the words.

Thoughts of Sally crowded out those of the tunnel on the walk home as I listed off the good points about her. She was intelligent, personable and pretty, ticking three of my top five requirements, if she was loving and sexually adventurous in bed she'd tick the whole five.

I went straight to bed when I got home, my thoughts by then focused back on ways of improving the time tunnel. When I got to the lab the next morning an excited looking Sally was waiting for me.

As I walked up to her she held out a USB stick. "I did the one for Mars first, can we test it out?" she asked enthusiastically.

Today she was dressed in an almost to the knee denim skirt with a boat necked pale green top, dark tights and plain flat shoes. I had to be at least six inches taller, putting her at five eight; not much difference if she wore high heels.

"Yeah, sure," I replied with a smile as I opened the door.

Inside I started the computer for her then booted up my laptop to start looking for sonar gear, something that could take extreme pressure. I found lots. We'd have to go to the high end of the market to get range and resolution, but that was what was needed.

It had taken me all of ten minutes; Sally was still working things out so I went on to check my email. As news of my discovery circulated, I had more mail than ever. This current crop had messages from other universities congratulating me whilst confirming they'd replicated my results.

This was my ace; the knowledge was spreading through academia. It would take a world conspiracy to suppress my discovery now. I composed replies encouraging them to use the models they'd built as a way of studying the phenomena, mentioning the conundrum of the invisible camera

I still hadn't decided whom to distribute the new devices to; it would be nice to give one to the War Trials tribunal in The Hague. It would save the prosecutors the bother of finding witnesses whilst bringing a speedy trial.

By the time I had worked through the inbox and flagged those others I intended to answer, Sally had the program working and was getting excited as she closed in on Olympus Mons.

"That looks spectacular," I said, getting up from my desk.

"I see why you want the interface now; keeping things in focus is fiddly," She replied without taking her eyes from the screen.

I walked over behind her as she zoomed down. There was a lot to explore if you were a geologist, but to me Mars or not, it was just a load of rocks. The excitement I felt was in seeing what the machine could do, not being there.

She started descending into the volcano's cone; we had a slight angle from the vertical, enough to give us an appreciation of the magnitude of it as we dropped lower.

"I've got a feeling this is going to be a long session. I'll get us coffees before we start," I said over her shoulder.

"Yes," she replied. "Give me time to master tweaking this beastie."

I chuckled as I straightened and turned to go, leaving her to enjoy her learning curve. As I strolled down to the drinks machine I was tentatively adding NASA's rover team to the list, they certainly could make good use of it.

When I got back, she was exploring the depths of Valles Marineris.

"Steve, come and see this," she said glancing back when I elbowed the door open. "It's like the Grand Canyon in places."

"Your fish finder idea paid off," I said to her as I walked up.

She took the cup from me with a smile. "Thought it would; my father uses one."

"They're expensive, the good ones. Could you get your department to pay for one?"

"If we wait three weeks for a decision," she replied with a snort. "A cheap one will tell us if there's anything sizeable down there. It's a pity we can't take samples and see if there are any micro-organisms."

"Yes, finding alien life would set the world alight, whilst dealing another blow to the fundamentalists."

She gave a little chuckle. "The real prize would be finding a planet in the goldilocks zone that we could study."

"That would be a big search," I muttered, thinking of the hundred light year sphere we could view.

"Too big for us," she agreed. "Can I use your laptop?"

"Yes," I said standing back as she rose from her seat.

"What sort of prices were those fish finders?" she asked as she walked to my desk.

"The cheapest ones were about a hundred; two fifty would get you a reasonable one," I replied. "I think the transducer comes separate and will run you another hundred or so."

She was busy doing a search. "There's a shop on Cuthbert St. Can we go there now? It advertises second hand."

"Yes, I'll drive you there. You can write your program while I get it set up. I also want remote tilt and pan on the camera. Do you think you could tie that into the computer as well?"

She looked at me as she stood. "That's a little beyond me; you'll need someone else to write the program. There may be some open source program I could look at --"

I nodded. One more thing to juggle. It would be nice to get everything integrated into the keyboard.

I drove her over and she picked out a second-hand model that met our requirements, a nineteen hundred foot range with a one twenty degree viewing angle.

She was even more anxious and excited on the trip back, it would be easy to mount the resin encapsulated transponder alongside the camera, realigning it might be a little more difficult.

While I worked, she sat and modified the program with the new parameters. By the time I finished my tummy reminded me that it was past dinnertime. It was a hurried break, though there was no rush in an absolute sense. She was hyped about getting it working as soon as possible.

She had a couple of bugs to fix when she ran it, giving a cry of excitement when we finally saw the moon on the third try. She quickly took us zooming down to the surface, turning to give me a wild grin before plunging on down through the layer of ice.

The ice was thick. It seemed to take forever once the camera blacked out and we focused on the small display of the sonar. The tension was palpable as the probe showed nothing. She stopped the descent and we stared at the misty green display, scanning for any bright spots.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying at various depths and were treated to a sparkling display at the seabed where we found undersea vents, the definition of thermal boundaries giving us a sharp image.

We were both disappointed, she more so than me. We hadn't proved there was life under the ice but we hadn't disproved it either. Maybe our equipment wasn't sensitive enough. She had discovered the vents, that at least was something. Maybe with a bit of advice we could try again.

I had Professor Lopez to meet. I let Sally stay on to work on her program while I hurried off to the café to see if he'd turn up. I got there in plenty of time and found a table near the door to see him if he came while I consumed my burger and coffee.

He must have seen me through the window; he came straight to me after he'd entered the café. "Did you get a letter too?" he asked in hushed tones as he sat across from me.

"No, I sent it," I replied calmly as I looked him in the face.

"You're Professor Lutner aren't you?"

"Yes. What did you think of the clips?"

"They look authentic. What is the physics department doing with it, and why all of this secrecy?"

"We've discovered a time tunnel, and can look back on twelve thousand years of man's history. We're at the prototyping stage at the moment, and I wondered if you'd be interested in taking part in the trial."

It took him a second or two to digest my words. "God!" he exclaimed. "You mean any time, anywhere?" he continued sounding dubious.

"Yes," I replied nodding my head. "Pick anywhere in modern history, and I'll set up a demonstration."

"This sounds too good to be true; it'll revolutionise everything. We can even solve the riddle of the Sphinx," he said with a short laugh.

"We've already had a look at Santorini. I've got the clip of that, and a bit of Shakespeare."

"How soon would I get my own Time Tunnel?" he asked eagerly.

"I'm waiting on the parts now; as soon as they come I'll be building it. In the meantime, there are preparations you can make. You're going to need a telescope mount and a good camera."

We talked a little more about the set up and what he'd need, telling him about the new module that we hoped to develop and inviting him around the following morning to see our current set up and try it out.