“SO THAT IS WHY I AM here with you today,” I told the two men of the League of Guardians. I gave them my grandfather’s handwritten note.
The chairman’s assistant commented, “You were at Moscow when it was bombed.”
“Yes.”
He said, “My mother was on a diplomatic mission to Moscow at the time.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“She wasn’t informed to leave.”
The two men gathered and conferred with each other. Finally, the chairman said to me, “We are making an exception in your case.”
“An exception in my case? Why?”
“You look exactly like your grandfather at that age. You have his security badge and the old clothes he wore. In addition, you have the location of the documents. Should you interface with someone who your grandfather knew, they would simply think it was him.”
I stood there silently for a second. “What has changed? Why are you now willing to take that risk?”
“Tell him,” the chairman’s assistant stated.
“Tell me what?”
“Kevin, the nuclear bombing of Beijing was only the beginning. The United American Emperor has plans for the genocide of the Chinese people. He wants a complete atomic bombing of all China, just as President Curtis LeMay nuclear bombed all of North Vietnam. The emperor has set aside 1,500 megatons worth of nuclear bombs for the campaign.”
“Surely, his advisors told him that’s insane?”
“His advisors told him the Earth couldn’t handle that much more radiation.”
“What did the emperor say?”
“The United American Emperor had all his advisors executed. That is why we are now willing to risk sending you back to World War II. Now that your grandfather is somewhat cooperating, I believe we can begin. However, we need a time anchor.”
“A what?”
“A time anchor is an object that was there at the place you want to travel to in time. You place the object in the Time Travel Chamber, then you set the time you wish to go to. The machine will take you to where that particular object was at the time. Without it, you can’t go back. Do you have anything?”
I opened the wardrobe and said, “I have his security badge, shoes, clothes, and uniforms.”
“No, no, they are changed every day. Security badges are upgraded.”
“What about a belt or a watch?” I said.
“We can’t be sure he had it with him at that specific time. Does he have a wallet or keys, maybe?”
I searched around the wardrobe and said, “No, none of that is in the wardrobe ... just old clothes, photos, souvenirs, and mementos.”
The chairman stated firmly, “It has to be something he would have had with him at the time.”
“Something he would have had with him at the time ...” I said aloud. I pulled out the ring from my pocket. “My grandfather said he kept this with him always. He had it made for a friend but never gave it to him. He knew about the Time Travel Chamber the whole time.”
“Perfect,” the chairman said.
I grabbed some of Grandfather’s old clothes, his security badge, and the old watch. I wound my grandfather’s watch. “Five minutes,” I said aloud. I stepped into the large glass tube in the middle of the basement.
The chairman said to me, “Give us a complete report when you get back. Our memories might change.”
The chairman called out, “Initiate Time Travel Chamber.”
While adjusting some dials, the chairman’s assistant said in German, “Einleiten ziet reise Kammer.”
Then the chairmen said, “Kevin, place the ring on the glass shelf.”
There was a small shelf protruding from the glass. I placed the ring on it.
“Time anchor follow and locked,” he said.
“Ziet anker folgen und gespert,” his assistant said in German before flipping some switches.
“Date, the fifth of May. Time, four a.m.,” the chairman continued.
“Datum, der fünfte Mai. Ziet, 4:00 Uhr.” He flipped some more switches.
“Year, 1944.”
“Jahr, neunzehnhundertvierundvierzig.”
“Execute time jump.”
“Ausführen ziet springen,” he continued in German and flipped the final switch.
“Damn this nuclear empire!” I said, then flash!
I was projected. It worked! It actually worked! I was back in May 1944, Manhattan Project, Los Alamos Laboratory, building C, file room. The ring was on the floor. I put it in my pocket. No one saw the time travel portal open.
I checked my grandfather’s watch. Four minutes, thirty seconds. That was all the time I had to destroy a few documents.
I opened the drafting table drawer A and found a complete set of blueprints titled “Fat Man” and “Little Boy,” along with some files marked “Fission Process Calculations.” Quickly, I opened the small steel door on the back wall and shoved some papers down the incinerator chute.
“Hold it right there.”
I turned around and saw the army security guard pointing a forty-five automatic at me.
“Steve!”
“Hey, Joe. How’s it going?”
“Steve, if you were anyone else, I would have shot you.”
It’s great to look like my grandfather, I thought to myself.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Joe told me.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just catching up on some work. What are you doing here this time of night?” I asked him.
“Escorting some bigwig.” Joe nodded over his shoulder to a guy.
“They won’t be incinerating until tomorrow. You dropped this, sir.” A funny short man with little round glasses handed me one of the blueprints titled “Little Boy.” He held his hand out. “Have we met?”
I wasn’t sure what was the best BS line to use. I threw the file into the incinerator and, remembering to use my grandfather’s name, said, “I think we may have. I’m Steven Bailey.” I shook his hand.
“Klaus.”
Joe said to me, “You know, Steve, I need to report you.”
He’s going to report me. I needed to think fast. I pulled the time anchor out of my pocket. “Oh, by the way, here’s the ring you wanted. It’s ready.”
Joe took the ring. “Wow, that’s a beauty. Martha will be impressed.”
I looked at my watch. One minute left. I need to get out of here. I said, “Tell you what, Joe. I’ll go now. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
He responded, “No, stay here until eight a.m. when the building opens. They will think you just came in early. Don’t tell anyone I told you.”
“Hey, thanks, Joe. By the way, I heard you’re being shipped out soon. Keep your head down.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that,” he responded. He then looked over his shoulder and said, “Dr. Fuchs, we have to go.”
“It was nice to meet you,” the little man said and stared intently at the incinerator door before he left.
I checked my grandfather’s watch. Thirty seconds left.
The two of them stepped out of the room and flash!
I was back in my damp, cobweb-strewn basement. The League of Guardians men were gone along with the Time Travel Chamber, but nothing else has changed. Did they leave and simply take the chamber with them? The time anchor was gone. I failed. I must have failed, I thought. The old musty wardrobe was still in the corner of the basement. Nothing else has changed?
As I went upstairs, I heard the chime from the grandfather clock. Ding, ding, ding. “Same clock,” I said. I opened the door.
It was the same Victorian mansion with the same old furniture, but there was no picture of the UAE Emperor. There was no Geiger counter on the door, and a number of other odds and ends were different.
“Something’s not right,” I said aloud.
My grandpa was standing at the door in a business suit. Standing next to him was an elderly woman in a very formal dress.
My grandfather said, “Well,
there’s the man of the hour. Hey, I want you to meet an old friend of mine. She’s here for this special day.”
The elderly lady came up to me, grabbed the side of my head, and kissed me on the cheek. On her left hand was the ring, the time anchor.
“Such a handsome young man. Oh, she’s a lucky girl,” she commented.
I said to her, “You’re Martha ... Joe’s wife.”
She told me, “Joe died in 2001. You would have been so young. How would you know that?”
Died in 2001, I thought to myself. He survived the war and married Martha.
Then my grandfather spoke up. “Kevin, we have been looking all over for you. Where have you been?”
“Grandpa, what’s the rad count?” I asked.
“The what count? What are you talking about?”
Suddenly, a little twelve-year-old girl, also wearing a very formal dress, walked in the room, holding some sort of writing pad. She tapped on the pad. “Rad count, also known as roentgens, is the old unit of radiation now called sieverts since 1976.”
My grandfather told her, “Tammy, I told you not to play with Kevin’s computer pad.”
“I said I’d put it back when I was done. I’m looking up a few things for my class.”
She found some sort of information on that computer thing she was holding. A computer. Is it possible to have a computer that small?
“Now, Kevin, don’t be mad at your little sister.”
“Little sister?” I said aloud. Then I thought to myself, I altered the timeline. I have a little sister now. I did it! I actually did it, my God. Yet, still, there is a parallel.
“I’ll put it back,” my little sister said.
I picked up the little girl and held her in my arms. “Tammy, I’m sorry if, in the past, I was not the nicest of big brothers. Tell you what. Today, I want to make a new start. From this day forward, I will be the best big brother you could ever want. To prove that I am serious, I want you to keep the computer pad. It’s yours now.”
“Really? I can have it?”
“I just want you to help me look up a few things.”
“Okay, fine. What do you need to know?”
My little sister helped me go over some of the history. In April 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. In August 1945, President Truman dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I only delayed it. It was dropped on Japan, I thought to myself.
In 1949, the Soviet nuclear test was successful. A Cold War had started. In 1951, Douglas MacArthur was fired during the Korean conflict.
We found a newspaper headline.
“Fired MacArthur to avert general war,” President Truman says in bid for Korean Peace.
Joseph McCarthy never became president ... hardly a historical footnote for his stance on communism.
In October 1962, there was a nuclear standoff when nuclear missiles were placed on the island of Cuba. President John F. Kennedy blockaded the island. Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles.
“War is averted,” I said.
In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved. For the most part, the Cold War ended. No United American Empire was ever formed. America had no monopoly on nuclear weapons. You could never use a nuclear weapon. There would be an instant nuclear retaliation, and the world would be destroyed.
They actually coined a word for it, “MAD”, Mutually Assured Destruction. No nuclear weapons were used since the bombing of Japan.
“One more thing to look up,” I requested. We found a headline from Oct. 18, 1945.
Red Spy Steals U.S. Atom Bomb Secrets
In 1945, Dr. Klaus Fuchs passed U.S. atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union for the first time. Between 1945 and 1947, working with a courier code-named Raymond, Fuchs delivered high-level information to Moscow about the atomic bomb, then later, the hydrogen bomb.
That’s why he stared at the incinerator door. No one saw me put the files in there. He simply retrieved them later.
The world is not perfect. Certainly, the world has not ended war. However, there are no nuclear demonstrations on any city.
“Kevin!” my mother suddenly screamed out. She threw a tuxedo at me. It was still on a hanger covered in plastic from the dry cleaner. “Put your sister down and get dressed. Laura is waiting for you at the church.”
“Laura! Wait, Laura is here?” I asked.
My mother responded, “Kevin, pull yourself together. You’re getting married today.”
Rescue
E. W. Farnsworth
AN ANCIENT WOMAN IN a robe emerged from the mist to tell the trembling female figure who stood before her, “Roxanne, please step forward. Do not be afraid. You have been selected among all souls in the universe for placement in a time-critical situation for which you have been uniquely prepared to make a difference. Yours is an assignment of correction upon which the future of Earth depends.”
“Who are you? And where am I?” She felt along her left arm with her right hand as she tried to discover whether she was dreaming or not. She tried to recall her last sensation before she had been enveloped in the mist, but she could not do so.
“You are not dreaming,” the older woman said. You have been transported to the place of assignment by a guardian, me, a leader of the League of Guardians, the council that assigns a time traveler like you to a particular interval in history to correct an imbalance.”
Roxanne shook her head as if in disbelief. “What do you require of me?”
“Compliance, obedience, and patience.” The old woman’s smile wavered between amusement and malice.
“I am truly sorry, but I’m not very strong in any of those qualities. What is the imbalance I am supposed to correct?”
“You’ll know what to do when you encounter your destiny. First, though, you’ll have to taste injustice, though it will be moderated by an earthly guardian who works with us. For that preliminary business, you’ll be assigned the nickname of Roxy.”
The female figure was summarily transported to a long stretch of beach. She was alone.
AT NAGS HEAD IN THE offseason, Roxy walked along the long, empty beach, goosebumps rising from chilly winds that swept the drying line. Sand specks swirled and bit and tickled. The young woman was raw and red from repeated saltwater dives. Seaweed pulled at her ankles when she waded. The Atlantic was a seething caldron, gunmetal gray with nothing on the afternoon horizon. The late afternoon sun hid behind the low, leaden sky in clouds thick enough to mask celestial light.
In her ears, the wind howled in conspiratorial whispers. Roxy wanted to sing. All Hallows’ Eve stole in as gulls huddled low, beaks windward, their feathers down. Wilson’s snipes ran, flocked, and flew. Here the bones of an unrecognizable fish waggled in the sudsy remnant of the waves, still crashing and drifting. Her eyes remarked the rising tide, the arms that reached from channels beckoning. She understood the pull against the sand and pebbles, the wrack of shells, and bubbles of bivalves.
She had no Guardian now. He sloughed her off in favor of his computer games and virtual friends. She had no recourse except to mend her broken fences and return to the oceanic sense of sudden loss. Roxy did not care tonight that the full moon would be invisible. She felt it doing to her heart what it did to the sea. Her warm memories needed a rinse of a saltwater bath. She wanted to be rid of him forever, like her trail of bare footprints down the dunes to the relentless, pounding surf.
She had no family now. Having made a bad choice and become Ariadne, she was abandoned and on her own. One hand felt the knot of her brunette braid. This was no time to weep; that time had passed. She felt determined as she edged toward the slope where the current slipped north up the shore athwart the undulation of the waves. She read somewhere that underwater was warmer than wet skin in a cold breeze. In her blue bikini, she felt the sea waist-high, then as high as her breasts. A stippled wave raised her off her footing.
Roxy floated and shivered. As the wave
s of fear passed through her, she felt the sand reach up from below. A cloak of algae hung on her limbs. She felt the riptide rushing from shore. Not yet, she thought as she bobbed in the gelid water. Sharks fed here. What the ravenous teeth left in gobbets fell to the seafloor where sea robins, toadfish, and flatfish devoured the waste. She had a frisson of terror as she thought of her flesh shredded in the soupy sea.
A wave swatted her ear and filled it with water. She instinctively knocked her head with her palm on the opposite side. She thought she heard the ocean addressing her, telling her not to be frightened, telling her to let go. She felt a large, jelly-like object enfold her like a hand. Roxy screamed until she laughed, hysterical because she realized her plan was also the sea’s plan. No longer could she control her direction. No longer could she find footing. She slipped into a channel of fast-flowing water, drawn down inexorably into the deep.
An experienced swimmer, Roxy knew she should not struggle. “Those who struggle against the undertow are lost.” Those were her father’s words, and he seemed near her right now, reaching his hands for hers. She kicked in his direction and extended her hands toward his. She felt his warm and powerful arms holding her, diving deep in the sea with her to a place where the seaweed bunched and swirled. Now, she thought, he’ll take me to the surface. She let herself go completely.
Down, down she went with the force of the fierce, confusing riptide jerking her left and right. She wanted the comfort of her father’s hand but knew he was gone forever. She took one last breath and sensed the void.
“ROXY, THIS IS GUARDIAN. I have learned that you need a rescue. If so, tell me whether you are okay and give me your current location.”
“I’m okay. Yes, I need a rescue. I am on Arlo Hill below the Sawyer Warehouse. Hurry, please.”
Guardian must have gone flat out from a nearby location. He was next to Roxy within ten minutes. She was so cold that her teeth were chattering. Her hair was wet and tangled. She was trying not to cry.
“Don’t talk. Let me check you out a minute. You don’t seem to have broken any bones. Your clothing is torn. You have nothing but open sandals on your feet. Can you stand up if I help you?”
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