The Hourglass Cycle — Chapter 1: When the Clock Falls…

Humans ponder, and their musings are often of things far grander than themselves. Man had looked upward at the stars glinting in a twilight canvas for as long as he could recall and then some. The cave-dwellers of prehistory wondered at these distant gems as do many moderns. But humanity reached its dream of visiting the heavens, in a way.

People can plan and design, and they can take others to worlds afar. But sitting there in the cockpit of any vehicle, the passengers are always surrounded by the small things: common things that can be grasped and manipulated like buttons or controls. But the stars which appear to be right outside the port continue to escape us.

We want to make them tangible, approachable. But such a desire is truly best to let die because, as it turns out, if one were to touch a star he would be incinerated. It’s a simple enough fact. Apparently though, its sense of logic has been neglected. Science always looks to new frontiers, new habitats to explore and pillage, even at the risk of safety.

Like many previous times throughout our history, scientists decided to get ahead of themselves. The result of this great leap for mankind: a few steps back, back into time itself. It was not so many years from this present day that the quantum physicians thought they had run all the tests necessary to prove their theory.

But they managed to forget another basic principle: science does not prove anything; it merely draws the most accurate conclusions from available data. And in this case, all the data needed could never be attained.

In regards to time travel (and a good many other things), time is key. It has infinite value until it runs out. Like art, science ought not to be rushed. The scientists thought they knew what needed to be known, and that was it. The costly project was given the title F.A.L.L.O.U.T. In full, the acronym stood for First Appliance for Light-launching Out of Universal Time. Government volunteers were plentiful, and once the proper environment for testing and physical time travel had been provided, the best candidates were interviewed.

Four out of several dozen had been chosen as the first trainees: Bill Richards, Teresa Bissel, Lizzy Clare, and Tom Tovar. After several training sessions, it was clear Richards fit the bill for the role of leader on any future task force. He had the build, the endurance, the conscience, and the get-it-done attitude.

Clare and Tovar were a few of the scientists who had aided in several of the project’s stages of development. Lastly, Teresa Bissel had both a military and doctrinal background. Her presence on the team was a crucial one. Being fit and being prepared for the worst was only half the training. Getting to know and work smoothly with one another was just as important a task as any.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Lizzy lightly chided Bill who stood a head higher than her. The man was toying with some of the electronics of a radio. This particular test was to see who was quickest at putting together a radio so it functioned properly. Bill had started doing it in a fashion unknown to the young scientist. He was not following the procedure taught in class, and this annoyed her.

“I’m fixing my radio,” the team leader answered bluntly.

“Aren’t you going to do it like how they showed us last week?”

“No. I find it easier to jiggle the receiver back into place last after everything else.” He demonstrated to her. “Try it.” She did, and after a few more tries she agreed wholeheartedly with Bill’s method.

The whole team had to learn from each other. After several months of undergoing a variety of simulations and hypothetical situations, the heads of F.A.L.L.O.U.T. agreed the quartet was as prepared as anyone could be for the mission ahead of them. Some of the outsiders looking at such a momentous project as this can easily come to question its purpose.

“What use is there for a contraption that can transport people into a different time?” is a common question among such skeptics. The answer is that time travel into the recent past (as far back as even the past half-century or so) can prove invaluable. It was never, of course, intended to directly save or eliminate anyone from the timeline of history.

It was to be used to learn about lost secrets, plans and other information which would be quite beneficial to future generations. And the team’s first operation was going to involve this very concept.

***

“Come in,” General Higgens said standing in the open doorway of his office, directing the four trainees to be seated. They entered; the door was shut. He briefed them on the mission. It seemed that back in 2023 an alliance between a handful of small foreign nations had planted several agents within the NASA group responsible for developing the housing plans for the first largescale settlements on Mars. This had been just four short years ago.

“Just recently, a defector released this information to us,” the General said. “But that’s the most she could give us. She didn’t know any names or faces. She was only involved in a few minor details of the operation. F.A.L.L.O.U.T. can use this news to the American people’s advantage.

“It’s expected the housing materials and the engineers needed to see the project through will be on their way to Mars before the end of the year. It’s vital we know who those inside agents are before then. We have no idea what their motives might be, but they’re certainly illegal.”

Higgens continued to explain the game plan. The four of them would have to discover the true identities of the agents as well as the aliases they used. It also obviously had to be done discretely.

“If all goes well, you’ll touch down in Takamaka, Seychelles in Africa,” he told the team. “Another inside source claims the diplomats of these countries shall meet at the pub at this address.” He pointed to it on one of the sheets. Picking up another folder on his desk, the General showed them photos of the five diplomats. When all said and done, the team had been supplied with what information they would need.

The survival and spy gear they were likely to need was packed up and awaiting their departure. Teresa was concerned about this mission perhaps a bit more so than her companions. Nothing like it had ever been attempted before.

When the time drew near, the four of them walked into the transport chamber where the keenest minds of that day were going to make time stand still. There were just 35 minutes left in the countdown. They had called their families and gave them what consolation they could. Now the hardest part left to them was waiting. A few of the travelers-to-be felt queasy. One of them was Richards himself.

“So how exactly does this work again?” he asked openly. “We’ve gone over it again and again, but I still don’t fully understand the mechanics or science behind it.”

Lizzy and Tom smiled at one another when they heard this. Another scientist in the room approached the team captain and attempted a simple explanation. “To put it in layman’s terms, Mr. Richards, we’re just putting the classical equation E=mc2 to work. As energy can be transformed into matter, so matter can be transformed into energy.

“Your subatomic particles will be altered into photons, the particles which make up light energy. As light, you will travel at lightspeed which will cause you to go backward in time. As beams of light, you will be channeled and absorbed at the other end of the chamber. The distance you travel and the time it takes you to reach the other side will affect your location in time and space.

“By manipulating your particles properly, we can send you anywhere in the past. Once your light particles are spent, the power automatically runs out, and you’re there. Every individual and their gear will be sent as a separate beam.”

“So you can’t send anyone into the future?” Bill sounded as if he were in disbelief.

“At this time, we don’t have the capability to send people forward in time.” the scientist answered gravely. He sounded disappointed at this as well.

“Then to get back,” Tom added in more of a chipper-dipper tone, “each of us has one of these hand-held devices.” The little contraption he held was no bigger than one of the walky-talky radios. “They reverse the effects which happen here in this lab. Once we’ve used them, we’ll return here, but they’ll be left wherever the last place we were standing.”

“But they will leave practically no mark on the past,” concluded the scientist. “Twenty seconds after being activated, they self-destruct via an acid solution. It doesn’t leave much except a small pile of melted metal.”

Several more minutes slipped on by. The analog clock ticked subtlely in the background. The four people looked around at each other. General Higgens and the other heads of F.A.L.L.O.U.T. stepped in and gave their goodbye’s.

“God’s speed,” the General bid them farewell.

“I’ll see you guys in 2023,” said Bill as he stepped onto the circular target zone. “Okay, you can beam me up when you’re ready.” He cleared his throat. They noticed he was shifting back and forth on his left leg ever so slightly. He was nervous. So were the rest. One by one they were “beamed up” and transported. The chamber was empty.