Laws of Time

by Jeff Yee

  “As you can see, our little friend is now accelerating his pace of time. What appears to us to be one hour will appear to him to be less than a second.”

  On the monitor, the two objects placed inside the time machine were motionless. The rat was still; caught with his legs stretched out in a sprint at the instant when the time transportation process began. His on-screen image was no more than an outline. He was a transparent figure. Reporters could see directly through his body to the base of the sphere which he was running upon. Likewise, the watch was also a transparent object. Oddly, the iron core within the sphere was the only item within the time machine that was not transparent. It was a solid object.

  “I realize that many of you are wondering how this process works. Unfortunately, I will not be able to tell you everything. As you might expect, the details of our technology will remain a secret here at Tace. However, I will explain what you are seeing on the screen.”

  The reporter from the New York Times was immediately skeptical and interrupted Kris. He asked, “How do we know that this is not a hoax?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I could create a special effects video like the one that we’re watching on my home computer. How do I report back to my readers that this is real?”

  “You will see in an hour. That is why we also have a clock inside the machine. You will see that it remains the same time.”

  “I could easily stop a watch and restart it an hour later.”

  Kris was annoyed with the questions. He irritably responded, “Please let me continue. You can make your own decision in an hour after you have seen all of the facts. You are witnessing history here and if you would prefer, we can arrange to have another reporter that is waiting outside – one that did not get an invite to cover this event – to take your place.”

  The New York Times reporter sat back in his chair and did not say another word.

  “Now back to where I left off,” said Kris. “What you are seeing on the screen is an acceleration of the rat’s pace of time. Only the objects inside the machine experience this change. They are on a different path of time, accelerating faster than our pace here on the outside. In an hour, we must reverse this acceleration to put the rat and the watch back on pace with our current time.” Kris proceeded to show the illustration of the two toy cars racing around the track that had been demonstrated earlier to his father.

  The reporters were warned that they would not receive proprietary details, but as a good reporter pushing the limits, the man from BBC attempted anyway. “How did time begin to accelerate in the machine?”

  “I cannot give you the specifics,” replied Kris. “But what I will tell you is that we need to increase the energy of the system inside the time machine. At a subatomic level, we are affecting the charges of the basic elements within each of the atoms. The outside of the sphere has the opposite charge from the smaller sphere at the core. We can affect a positive or negative reaction of the atomic structure of any object between these two spheres. An increase in charges and electron binding energy levels sets the object in a path forward in time relative to our position. A decrease does the opposite and puts the object in a path backwards in time relative to us.”

  The BBC reporter continued to push the limit. “How do you increase or decrease the charges?”

  “Sorry, I can’t provide that detail. That’s proprietary to Tace.”

  Reporters continued to ask additional questions. Kris politely declined to answer most of questions. His company had spent years of research developing the answer to time travel and he was not going to give away the secret sauce.

  Ten minutes before the end of the hour-long time experiment, the guests received a press kit containing additional information for their reports. Included in the kit were videos that had documented previous experiments.

  Kris added, “Our friend from the New York Times may be particularly interested in one of the experiments included in your press kit. If you don’t believe that the watch is a good indicator that the pace of time has shifted inside our machine, I invite you to review the results of the experiment with the bacterium Streptococcus lactis. As you may know, when cultured, bacteria grow exponentially. The species we chose has a generation time of twenty-six minutes under ideal laboratory conditions. We placed one set of bacteria outside the sphere and another set inside the sphere and moved it forward in time. As expected the bacteria outside of our time machine divided and grew within the hour. And inside the machine? No growth. In other words, it did not age.”

  Sean Harrison sat quietly in a corner, amazed at what he was seeing. He was eagerly waiting for the capsule to be opened. With only minutes remaining, he got out of his chair and walked towards the computer where Ryan Graves was standing. Remaining silent, he gave Ryan a comforting pat on the shoulder. Sean wanted a closer look inside the machine when the rat came out. His chair in the back of the room did not provide a good vantage point. Suddenly, the computer monitor flashed a warning.

  Two minutes remaining.

  Kris stopped talking. Suspense filled the room. Camera crews repositioned themselves to capture the inside of the time machine when it would be opened.

  One minute remaining.

  At the controlling computer, Ryan monitored the activity. Power systems were fine. Final calculations were programmed into the computer. Everything was ready to decelerate the rat’s reference of time and bring him back to the present.

  Five, four, three, two, one…

  The indicator light on the top of the sphere changed quickly to red and instantly back to green. The humming noise the machine had made for the previous hour disappeared. On the big screen monitor, it was immediately apparent that the rat was in motion again. He continued circling the base of the time machine just as he had done an hour before. And the watch was no longer transparent.

  The journalists watched in awe as the lab technician opened the exterior door to the spherical time machine and retrieved the rat and watch. He held the rat high in the air for the cameras to record a quick photo or video, to document the historic journey, before putting the rat back into his cage.

  After the watch was returned, Kris opened it and held it for the press to see. “It says nine-twenty. It is still the same time when we put it into the machine. Like the rat, its path to this point in time lasted a fraction of a second. For the rest of us, it was exactly one hour. Ladies and gentlemen, this is time travel.”

  He intentionally ended on a climactic note. Kris had designed the presentation to take questions during the hour while they were waiting for the rat to finish time travel. His part was now over. Kris left the public relations team to handle the remaining questions from the press and exited dramatically like an Olympian receiving a gold medal.

  Behind him, he could hear the flurry of questions being targeted at the remaining Tace employees in the room. He could also hear footsteps closely approaching him.

  “Kris, wait up… I’ll walk with you,” said his father.

  The two men walked out through the lobby and into the sun-filled San Diego outdoors as they exited Building Twelve. They ignored the unfortunate reporters who did not receive the special invitation, waiting outside to get a glimpse of the technology. With the help of security guards, they were whisked away to privacy.

  As soon as they were alone, Sean exclaimed, “That was amazing!”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “I can’t believe what I’ve seen today. It really is possible. We can travel in time!”

  “Yes, you can travel in time. So, now what do you think about being the first one to do it?”

  Sean knew what his son was asking, but he had to clarify to be absolutely certain. “You mean be the first man to time travel?”

  “Yes.”

  He smiled. “I’ll do it.”

  Kris stared his father in the eyes for a second and then embraced him with a hug. “This one is for you. It’s for you.”

  Sean realized that he answer
ed too quickly in the excitement and added a condition to his previous statement. “Of course, I’ll have to check with your mother. We’re going to need to decide this one together.”

  “I understand.”

  “Kris, I want to help with the planning. I don’t know what it’s going to take, whether I need to be an employee of the company again or not. I’ll leave that up to you. But I would like to help plan the next tests and the development that we’re going to need to do before sending a human into the far future.”

  “Sure. We would love your help. And we can put you on payroll and make it official.”

  They continued down the path towards Kris’ office. Both men were elated and filled with excitement about the possibilities of time travel. Sean realized that there would be many intermediate experiments before the end state – his travel into the far future – but his mind was focused on the prize goal.

  He asked Kris, “How far forward shall we go? What do you think would be safe?”

  “I think you’ve seen the risks of going out too far. Damage to the machine. Unknown state of the world. Power requirements.”

  “How about twenty-four years?” asked Sean.

  “Why twenty-four? Because that is what you and Mom just did?”

  “Yes. What’s another quarter of a century?” Sean said jokingly. “But this time, I’ll be able to return to the present to talk about it. Right?”

  “Okay. But we have a lot to work on first. We need to finish the second time machine so that we can test a roundtrip scenario to the future and back. And we have not run a human test yet.”

  “Understood.”

  “We’re also going to want to run a lot of other experiments before we feel comfortable going out twenty-four years. It may be a while before we’re in a position to send you to the future.”

  “No problem. I just got here. We have time.”

  Listening to his father’s enthusiasm brought tremendous joy to Kris. He had risked his career on a bet that time travel was possible. The fame and notoriety from his company’s recent accomplishments were certainly gratifying. But nothing was more pleasing to Kris than the smile on his father’s face. He had helped to fulfill his father’s life-long goal to travel in time.

  Chapter 18

  The Harrison’s furnished condo in Del Mar was now complete. Stacey’s obsession with right angles required the furniture in the condominium to be rearranged in ninety-degree angles relative to the walls and windows. She had spent most of the day configuring her living quarters to her taste. Books were neatly arranged from shortest to tallest on the shelves. In the closet, clothes were first split by his versus hers, then ordered by type and finally by color – from lightest to darkest. Their collection of old DVDs was arranged in alphabetical order. For Stacey, it was now home.

  It was an hour before dinner when Sean arrived back at the condo. “Did you see the Tace demo on the news this morning?” Sean excitedly asked his wife.

  Stacey acknowledged, “I did. It was carried live on CNN. Kris did a wonderful job.”

  “Yes, he did. How about the test? What do you think of the test?”

  “It appears to be real,” she said nonchalantly. “I guess we can now travel in time.”

  Sean expected more enthusiasm from his wife. He knew something was not right. “What do you mean, you ‘guess’ we can now travel in time? It’s possible. I was there. I’ve seen the data.”

  “Some of the people calling into the radio talk shows are claiming that it was dubbed with special effects. And that it’s a conspiracy.”

  “It is not a conspiracy,” replied Sean, slightly annoyed. “It is an amazing invention! There will always be skeptics. But you believe that it is real, right?”

  “It’s real.”

  It was still not the answer or the tone that Sean wanted to hear from his wife. She had shared his enthusiasm for adventure and travel throughout their entire marriage. Now, it was an anti-climactic moment for the pair in their greatest opportunity. She was not excited. Sean asked, “Stacey, what’s up? Something’s wrong. What is it?”

  She confessed to her husband, “I know that you’re going to want to time travel. But I don’t want to go.”

  Sean was about to say something, but then realized he needed to listen to his wife.

  “I’m having a hard enough time adjusting to the present,” Stacey continued. “We just got here. We’ve lost a lot of family and friends and I don’t want to do it again.”

  Shocked, Sean tried to smooth things over with his wife. “It will be a long time before we can travel. Maybe up to a year for all of the development and tests to prepare a man for long term time travel. And who says that you and I will be the first ones anyway?”

  “Sean Harrison…” she said her husband’s name empathetically while she stared him straight in the eyes like a mother scolding a child. “I know you. Tell me that you haven’t already put plans together with Kris for you to be the first time traveler.” Stacey knew her husband well. There were no calls from Kris that had warned her. She could simply tell by looking into his face and reading his expressions that he had already made plans.

  He was caught. He replied with a grimace, “Sure, we’ve sketched out a few ideas.”

  Stacey looked into Sean’s eyes for seemingly endless minutes before she responded. A bead of sweat began to form on his forehead as he awaited her reply. With a look of disgust, she answered in a tone an octave lower than her normal voice, “You should have consulted me first… before you went ahead and started to make plans.”

  Before he could answer, Stacey walked out of the family room and into the bedroom.

  Sean needed time to think through potential scenarios before chasing his wife into the other room. He had to find a way to delicately balance Stacey’s desires with his own to fulfill his goals. Where was his rubber ball that he used to throw against the window of his old office when he was brainstorming? It was missing from his condo. He needed to relieve tension as he sorted through the possibilities. Sean sat down on the sofa and raised his legs onto the coffee table to stretch and relax. It didn’t help. He sat for no more than a few seconds before realizing that he needed to pursue Stacey and continue talking through the issues.

  “Stacey!” he said walking towards the bedroom with only a glimpse of an arm and a leg recognizable through the doorway. “I’m sorry. I apologize. You’re right and I should have consulted with you first.”

  An apology was a good start. It was the first thing that Stacey needed to hear. She was still concerned about time travel itself, but the fact that her husband requested forgiveness calmed her temper. Stacey replied, “Sean, you better make sure that we discuss any major life-changing events before you make any decisions again.”

  Sean was relieved that he had lowered the tension level and his voice was less defensive. “I can back out of plans with Kris. That’s not a problem. But you know that I’d really like to travel into the future. To see what it is like. To learn from the future.”

  “Yes, I know you would.”

  “And I’d like you to join me. It’ll be amazing!”

  “No. Sorry. I can’t Sean, I’m sorry.”

  “Why?”

  Stacey’s eye began to squint. Sean could not tell if tears were beginning to form in her left eye. Whatever it was, she was visibly upset.

  “We just got here,” she said repeating herself. “It’s hard enough for me to adjust to the current time. So much has happened and so much time has been lost. I don’t care if it’s a year before we can travel again, I just don’t want to risk losing more time with Kris, Aly and their families. Sean…” she paused to control her emotions, “we will never get that time back that we missed. It’s gone.”

  “But this one is different. We can go to the future and return. This is true time travel, not life suspension.”

  “We were lucky once. How can you expect to be the first one and be lucky again? That everything will work according to plan? And even i
f you are successful at getting to the future, who is to say that everything will work out and that you’ll be able to return successfully?”

  Sean realized he had not convinced his wife. “You said ‘you’. I take it that means that you are not going with me.”

  “Nope. I’m not even considering it. I’m trying to explain the risks to you. There are too many variables in a plan to go to the future and back in untested equipment. A rat for an hour is one thing. A man traveling ahead for years is a completely different story.”

  He confessed his plan with Kris. “Twenty-four years. Just like our past-to-present. Twenty-four years is what I’ve proposed.”

  “I knew it,” she said angrily. “You have already planned to the level of detail that you know how far into the future you intend to travel.”

  “Uh, yeah,” he said sheepishly. His responses were not helping his cause. Not only had he not convinced Stacey to join him, Sean realized that he was in danger himself.

  “You are risking your life. Our marriage. And your connection with your family, which has already been jeopardized because we’ve lost a lot of time. Why?”

  This was the question of his life. Why take risks? He was the entrepreneur. A mountain climber. A sky diver. Risks were a part of his life. Stacey had shared these risks with him and to some degree had even enjoyed them herself. She was clearly different now. Time, or the loss of time, had changed things.

  He stubbornly answered, “For science. We take these risks for the benefit of science and learning.”

  “Fine. But why you, Sean Harrison? Why must you be the one to go first?”

  “For one, it’s who I am,” he exclaimed. “This is what I do. Also, I trust myself. Time travel is unknown. We don’t yet realize the power associated with it. Can we trust someone else to take control of the future or not to use the knowledge of the future for personal gain?”

  Stacey was digesting the last comment and Sean could tell that he was finally making progress. She turned her head slightly left, but her eyes remained focused on Sean – something she would do when she was deep in thought. “Okay, I get the risks. But there must be someone else. A scientist? Someone else that would be trustworthy and would do it in the name of science.”