by Jeff Yee
Although he didn’t show his emotions, Cordeiros was furious. It was now a race. It was more than about being a name in a history book. Cordeiros understood that the first person to travel in time held all the power and that he had the ability to change future events in time – including the time travel programs of other countries – if he was the first. He knew that he needed to be the first time traveler. He knew that he had to accelerate his timeline and plans.
Chapter 37
It was ten-thirty in the morning on Saturday at Tace Technologies headquarters. Even though it was a weekend, a dedicated group of scientists continued to work around the clock to complete a special time travel experiment. Ryan Graves looked at his watch and began the countdown.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
As expected, the indicator light on the time machine went from yellow, to red and finally to green. The second of three phases of Project Monkey in the Middle was complete. Marcel had traveled from the past. The little monkey that was transported three days earlier, suddenly returned to view, standing bewildered in the middle of the time machine affectionately known as Betty.
“Out of all the experiments, this was the easiest,” said Kris to the same group of scientists that helped to launch the monkey into the future the previous Wednesday. “We already knew this one would be successful, didn’t we? We had to have known the result of this experiment, otherwise he would’ve never returned to us a few days ago. In a way, we’re simply carrying out his destiny.”
The confused monkey was carefully pulled out of Betty by Krishna, the scientist turned caretaker. Krishna immediately placed a tag on the younger Marcel to differentiate him from his other self – the older Marcel that had already traveled forward and backwards in time.
Marcel, -4 Days.
“Ok, he’s tagged,” explained Krishna. “Now we just need to make sure that we put this one in Barney tomorrow and not the other Marcel. We don’t want to end up with a circular reference.”
Stacey, who was accompanying her husband to witness the second phase of the project, did not want to be the only one in the room that did not understand the unfamiliar terminology. She whispered into her husband’s ear, “What’s a circular reference?”
“It’s an endless circle,” said Sean as he drew circles in the air with his right finger. “This Marcel that we’re looking at is four days younger than the one in the other room. Just like you and I, he has skipped through time – in his case, three days. The other Marcel is four days older, because he has already arrived in the present, returned back to the past and lived these past few days with us.”
“You mean three days. It’s been only three days since Wednesday.”
Sean corrected his wife. “No, four days. Three days that he has skipped through time, and one additional day between today and tomorrow. That’s because we’re not sending him back until tomorrow. So there is a total of four days difference between the two monkeys.”
“Okay, I get it. But what’s the circular thing?”
“Now, let’s say that we send the wrong monkey back in time. If we send the older monkey, we get into a bizarre cycle where we send back a monkey that gets four days older every time we run the experiment. He’ll never get past Sunday. He’ll go from Sunday, back to Wednesday, live until the next Sunday and then return back again. The pattern never stops until old age finally catches up with him. And who knows what happens at that point.”
It took Stacey a while to visualize the answer, but after creating a circle with her finger matching Sean’s motions, she smiled and said cheerfully, “I got it! I understand.”
Meanwhile, Marcel sat calmly in his cage; his hair being stroked by Krishna to keep him relaxed. His dark brown eyes remained fixed on the scientist that had become his caretaker and friend.
“Sean, one more question,” whispered Stacey.
Stacey was always full of questions. It was apparent from the first day that Sean met the woman that he would eventually marry. In a room filled with leading edge equipment and experiments that had never been performed before, Sean expected his lovely wife to be inquisitive. It was his chance to demonstrate his knowledge and to share his passion for the company and the technology that he helped to create. “What’s the question?”
“Last week you ran a backwards test, didn’t you?”
“Yes, with the rat. The rat that saved Ryan’s life.”
Doing her trademark thinking move, she tilted her head slightly to the left and kept her eyes focused on Sean. Stacey considered the scenario for a few seconds and then asked a follow on question, “When you sent the rat back in time, there would have been two rats, right? Wouldn’t the rat have met his younger self when he went back in time?”
“Yes. But the team did not allow the two rats to meet. We were not sure what would happen and so the team purposefully arranged it so that the younger rat was kept off site when the older rat was transported backwards in time. Then, two days later, the younger rat was brought here to the lab to be sent backwards. By then, the older rat was removed. They never had a chance to meet.”
“Why?”
Sean explained, “It could have been dangerous. We don’t know what could have happened. But by saving that experiment until this project, we have a high degree of certainty that the two monkeys meet and there’s no catastrophic event that happens.”
“I don’t understand. What’s the difference?”
“Because if there is to be an issue, then we would not have a monkey to send back to tomorrow. And if the monkey never gets sent back in time, then we wouldn’t have the monkey that is sitting in the other room right now.”
His explanation was difficult to comprehend, but Stacey nodded in agreement that she understood.
After thinking about his first answer, Sean attempted a second one in simpler terms. “You see, we would not have a monkey that would have returned back in time if there was a problem with today’s event. Therefore, we knew on Wednesday that the event today would be successful. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, as puzzling as it sounds, it does make sense,” Stacey acknowledged.
Slowly, Lab Murray emptied as Sean was finishing his explanation for Stacey. The rest of the scientists crossed the hallway to the next lab. Outside in the hall, careful not to enter the labs by order from their superiors, curious army soldiers waited patiently to see the time-traveling monkey as he was moved from one room to the next.
“You made it little buddy!” yelled a soldier as he reached out his hand to the monkey. Marcel’s arms reached through the gap in the wire cage but did not meet hands with the soldier before passing him.
Krishna was the last of the science party to enter Lab Nelson. He stood next to the soldiers, peering into the room from the doorway. “Are we ready? Are the cameras recording?”
“Yup, we’re rolling!” shouted Ryan.
A dozen scientists crowded around a cage on the floor of the lab. The cage was covered with a dark green towel, leaving only the feet of a second monkey exposed. It was the older Marcel. Slowly and carefully, Krishna crept closer to the covered cage, carrying the younger Marcel’s cage in both arms. Twenty feet from the cage. No reaction. Fifteen feet from the cage. Nothing from either of the monkeys. Then, when the younger Marcel was ten feet from the box on the floor they both squealed loudly.
Ooooohh!!! Ooooohh!!! Eeeeehh!!! Eeeeehh!!!
Even without the ability to see each other, the monkeys were absolutely frantic. The older Marcel jumped up and down in his cage, causing it to go airborne and allow the towel cover to slip and partially expose the cage. The two Marcels saw each other for the first time.
Ooooohh!!! Ooooohh!!! Eeeeehh!!! Eeeeehh!!!
The younger Marcel bounced off the sides of his cage causing it to violently swing about Krishna’s arms. The hair on the young monkey’s head stood firm and his eyes were open as wide as they could be.
Sean stared at the phenomenal event without an explanation. He couldn’t beli
eve his eyes. “Krishna, maybe you should back off a bit,” he ordered.
Without delay, Krishna and the younger Marcel took five steps backwards from the second cage. Both monkeys continued their frenzied behavior – they knew something was not natural about the situation. Not knowing what to do, Krishna asked, “Do you think they know they are the same?”
No one responded. There was not a team member that understood the answer, so rather than leave the question unanswered, Sean gave it a shot. “They didn’t even see each other. I don’t know what it was. A certain smell?”
Both Marcel monkeys continued to bounce off the sides of their cages. Stacey could not stand to watch them hurt themselves and insisted, “Maybe you should move one of them back to the other room.”
Krishna backed off quickly, turned and headed for the other lab. The older Marcel calmed down immediately after his younger self was no longer in view. The halls continued to echo with screeching noises from the younger monkey, but they dissipated soon after he was returned to the original lab.
“They’re calm again!” exclaimed Stacey, relieved that the animals were back to their normal state.
Sean kneeled to reach the cage on the floor, completely removed the green towel that was still attached to the side and put his hand through the gap in the top to pet the older monkey. Marcel was already calm, but he enjoyed the attention.
“Ryan, we should bring in the vet,” said Kris. “Both monkeys should be evaluated immediately to make sure that there’s no permanent damage. We should get it done within the next twenty-four hours before we send the younger monkey back.”
“Really, you think there could be damage?” asked Ryan.
“It’s possible,” answered Kris. “What happens when antiprotons and protons collide?”
“Annihilation. But c’mon, this is not an anti-monkey. It’s the same monkey just a few days older.”
“Okay, maybe that was a bad analogy, but you get the idea. We don’t know what we don’t know. And we should have them checked out.”
Ryan agreed.
The team knew that something had triggered the strange reaction in the two monkeys. Somehow the monkeys knew they were one. Was there any physical damage? Or was it just emotional? Sean wanted to know the answer himself. He silently amused himself, if I ever meet myself in the future, I don’t want to have the same reaction. Hopefully I’ll find myself to be attractive in my old age and not flip out.
Chapter 38
Damn! Sean looked at his watch: 10:12 a.m. A three-car accident on southbound Interstate 5 caused a major traffic jam on what should have been an easy commute for a Sunday morning between Del Mar and Tace Technology’s headquarters. Sean sat alone in the car, baking in the morning sun, barely able to do five miles per hour.
Instantly, he dialed his son from the car’s onboard communication system that was linked to his mobile phone. “Call Kris,” Sean commanded.
“Hello?” answered Kris after two rings.
Sean relayed his status. “Kris! I’m only a few miles away but I’m not sure if I’m going to make it on time. I’ve been stuck in traffic – an accident.”
“Yeah, Tracy just got here and she was stuck in the same thing. Hope you can make it, but if not, we’re gonna have to start without you.”
“I know. Ten-thirty sharp.”
“Yup. Better hurry.”
Realizing that the accident was blocking the two left lanes of the freeway, Sean merged to his right and slightly picked up speed. “Hold on. Before you drop, tell me about the checkup with the vet. Is everything okay before we send Marcel back? Any physical damage from yesterday?”
“No,” said Kris. “He checked out just fine. We’re all set to send him back to Wednesday.”
“Okay, great. See you in a few.”
The far right lane of the freeway was still painfully slow, but Sean inched along at twice the speed after merging lanes. After finally reaching the site of the accident and clearing through the point of congestion, Sean slammed his foot on the gas pedal. He was not going to be late for the final phase of the monkey test. Swerving in and out of lanes to pass slower moving cars, Sean managed to gain a few seconds before finding his freeway exit – it was hardly worth the effort, but it made him feel much better.
He looked at his watch again: 10:22 a.m.
Fortunately, the three traffic lights between the freeway exit and the Tace campus were all green. Sean flew threw the intersections at nearly fifty miles an hour and continued to drive double the speed limit even after arriving onto the corporate campus. It took another two minutes of winding the narrow campus streets before he reached Building Twelve. Upon arrival, Sean ignored the handicap parking sign and chose the closest parking stall to the building’s entrance. He flew through the entrance door and into the lobby, waved his identification badge at the reception and followed security procedures to gain access to the labs.
Weaving through six armed men standing guard at the lab, he looked down at his watch for a final time: 10:27am. I made it. Three minutes to spare.
“Sorry I’m late,” Sean huffed as he entered Lab Nelson, short on breath from his sprint from the car.
“Just in time,” said Kris. “We’re about to put him in now.”
Hunched over with his hands on his knees, panting like a dog that had fetched a stick, Sean asked, “Younger one?” He took a deep breath. “You’ve got the younger Marcel, right?”
Krishna, who was once again tasked with moving the monkey from the cage to the time machine, answered, “Yes. This is the younger Marcel.”
Out of breath, Sean chose to nod in agreement instead of responding verbally.
With two minutes remaining, Krishna removed Marcel from his cage and prepared to put him into Barney, the second of the two time machines.
Sean spotted something wrong. “Wait!” he exclaimed loud enough that everyone in the lab stopped their tasks to look at him. “Where is the note that we’re supposed to send back with him?”
With his father still short on breath, Kris finished the explanation. “Remember? The note that we tied to the monkey with our congratulations.”
Ryan knew where it was immediately. He had seen it right next to the keyboard closest to Barney, where it had been since it was taken off the monkey four days prior. Promptly grabbing the paper and supporting string, he wrapped it around Marcel’s neck.
Congratulations! The monkey survived a day in the future and now we return him back to present time.
With the younger Marcel in an identical state that matched his arrival on Wednesday, he was ready to be transported back to the past. Krishna placed the monkey into Barney, the second of the two spherical time machines. Shortly after, the countdown began.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Once again, the indicator lights on the time machine changed indicating the progress of the change in energy. In an instant, Marcel was gone and he was heading back to the past. Project Monkey in the Middle was complete.
“Great work everyone!” said Sean, finally catching his breath.
With the exception of Stacey, who was not an official member of the Tace scientific team, there was not a single member of the team that missed the final phase of the test, despite the fact that it was executed on a Sunday. History had been made. It was the first successful roundtrip travel in time. Marcel had traveled to the future and returned to the point of origination. When they knew it was over, the team cheered loudly and celebrated. Even the guards in the hallway, who had watched the experiment over the course of four days, joined the cheer.
Sean brought the celebration to a pause. “Listen up everyone…”
Slowly, the room became quiet.
Sean continued, “What we have accomplished this week and what you have accomplished these past few years preparing for this moment is nothing short of amazing. We have proven that it is possible to travel to the future and return. And if a monkey can do it, so can a man. This is a tremendous feat and you should
all be extremely proud of yourselves and the work that you’ve done here. This is truly a special moment to savor. Congratulations!”
Sounds of applause and excitement erupted a second time.
Once again, Sean interrupted. “Tonight, we have something special planned for you and for your families that have been very patient and understanding of your time commitment to Tace. We’ve reserved a private room at Donovan’s in La Jolla to celebrate tonight.” Sean looked into the hallway towards the eavesdropping army soldiers and joked, “And I’m sure we’ll need to find space for our military escorts as well.” Then, looking back towards Kris, Sean asked, “Kris, what time do we have it arranged?”
“Reservations are at seven,” Kris answered.
“Seven o’clock,” restated Sean, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to stay the entire evening. I need to take the redeye back to Washington for the senate hearings tomorrow. But stay as late as you want and don’t worry about tomorrow. I’d like to suggest that everyone take a day off and get back to the next test starting on Tuesday. Ryan, you okay with that?”
Ryan didn’t know what else to say. The founder of the company had already made a decision and communicated it to his team, so he nodded in agreement. “Tuesday is fine,” he said. “We’ll get started with Project Blossoming Butterfly on Tuesday.” Ryan used the transition as his opportunity for a team-building speech. “In the next experiment, we will be in a better position to demonstrate the true effects of aging when traveling in time. It was difficult to tell the four-day difference between the two monkeys in this test. But in our next experiment, we will use butterfly cocoons that are ready to hatch. We will launch cocoons into the future and bring them back as butterflies. We will celebrate tonight, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We’ll get started with the next test on Tuesday.”
Ryan, the pragmatist, thought Sean. Only one week removed from torture in North Korea and he’s back to his normal self.
