Veil of Time: A Paranormal-ESP Thriller (The Wizards Series Book 4) Page 19

“Oh, my. Do you understand what this means? The dreary wait between stations need never happen again. You could simply step onto a device like a train and immediately step off at your destination.”

“Something like that, yes. The problem is that it’s not predictable. That’s why I asked for your help. My arrival time was off by days or even years from what I predicted, based on the first trip I took.”

“And the degrees you recorded; are those taken from polar coordinates or from magnetic north?”

“I used a compass, so they were based on the magnetic pole.”

“Tom, I fear your notes are useless unless you also accounted for the movement of the magnetic pole. You are aware that it moves about in a somewhat predictable fashion, are you not? By orienting yourself before departure, then traveling back in time, the magnetic pole will have shifted by the time you arrive.”

“I never thought of that! Just one more complication; the offset based on movement of magnetic north would have to be calculated before going back in time, then?”

“It would. You would have to know when you would arrive in the past and where the pole would be at that time. You also have only a few data points, Tom. A rigorous analysis would require more, much more. It also appears that displacements in distance sometimes produce different displacements in time. In absolute terms, the additional distance is linear but the difference is not. Think of it in this way; a journey of one hundred miles places you back five years, while a journey of two hundred miles may send you back nine years or eleven.

“Calculus can help with that, at least. Allow me to think about this and I should have at least a preliminary solution for you by the time Wardenclyffe is ready for testing. I must tell you that my figures won’t be exact, because your measurements are not exact. You did not allow for the deviation from your planned course, so the angles you used are off to some degree. You understand trigonometry, I hope; a small angular change can result in considerable error in distance.”

“I gathered that from your comments.”

“It’s not all bad, but there are several variables to be accounted for, and you cannot expect a perfect outcome when the values you use are no better than estimates.”

“Garbage in, garbage out.”

“Tom, I don’t understand the term.”

“It’s not important, Nikola.”

#

Libby worked her way east, one short teleport at a time. She’d begun in the afternoon but soon realized that she was emerging earlier in the day. Eventually she realized that her next teleport would cause her to arrive somewhere before dawn, so she spent the remaining time hunting for food and finding a place to spend the night. The nuts and cress she found were filling, if not very nourishing.

Waking two hours after dawn, she faced the rising sun and formed her bubble.

The sun was like a strobe, always in a slightly different position after she materialized. Teleporting was instantaneous, getting her bearings and listening for a telepath took longer.

And then everything changed.

The amusement was clear.

Ray floated above Mount Taylor, looking west. The air was thin and cold. The sun was visible from this height, even though the land below was covered with darkness. Accelerating, he flew toward the setting sun. The bubble kept the wind off, but the cold bit through his buckskins. Short teleports without using his bubble would have been faster, but dangerous; no, this method was slow, but it was certain.

Libby, I want to try something, but it’s cold above the mountains. Do you have a coat?>

Libby didn’t respond this time. Ray made the best speed he could, heading toward the setting sun, but wasn’t able to keep up. Slowly the land below became fully dark. Above him, the stars appeared, then brightened.

t’s dark there, right?>

The amusement came through the comm.

Ray thought, even as he searched for her blinking bubble. Libby had headed directly for Nevada from Houston. Might this not mean that she was north of where he was? Ray had started from Mount Taylor, so he would have to go north to reach the area around Reno. He faced north and glanced at the north star from time to time.

Ray drifted north, finally spotting her fire, no more than a pinpoint of light on the side of a mountain to his north. Thirty minutes later he landed beside it, surprising Libby.

“In your pocket? Yuk! I hope it’s not covered with lint or something!”

“Just brush it off, Libby. No lint; these are buckskins.”

“I’m hungry enough to eat it anyway!”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Tom, did you do everything the same during each of your journeys? You understand what variables are, do you not?”

“They’re things that change, I think. Is this what you mean, Nikola?”

“Yes, but they’re very important in science. If you have more than one variable, then you cannot tell with certainty which of them caused a change to happen.”

“I can see that. Are you saying I included too many variables for you to make sense of my notes?”

“I’m saying I can’t be certain. Consider the directions, for example. It appears likely that the magnetic field measured by Gauss fifty years ago is interacting somehow with you in the same way that the rotor in my dynamo acts in the magnetic field. Is there something else you haven’t told me?”

T hesitated. How much should he tell Tesla? But if he didn’t tell him about the bubble, how could he explain his theory that opposing electric charges maintained the field around him?

“Nikola, I can’t explain everything. It’s dangerous; do you understand the concept of changing time?”

“Tom, how can that be possible? Everything that has happened in the past must have taken place or you could not be here now.”

“Some have considered the question and they’re not sure whether it’s impossible or not, Nikola. It’s called the time paradox; suppose a time traveler were to go back in time and somehow cause the premature death of his great-grandfather? This would mean he had not been born, so therefore he couldn’t go back in time, resulting in an endless loop of questions with no answers.”

“Did reputable scientists do this, or only writers who engage in foolish speculation, people like the writer of that book you showed me? The answer must be that you cannot change what has happened.”

“So what you’re saying is that if I accidentally reveal something to you, it won’t make a difference because it didn’t make a difference?”

“Just so. So what are you afraid of revealing to me? Am I fated to die before Wardenclyffe is completed?”

“Nikola, I don’t know the date of your death. I don’t know the day when J. P. Morgan will die or anyone else who’s now alive, for that matter. I remember only a very few deaths, and that is because I was there when it happened. I was a soldier, people died, and some of those memories will live with me forever because I saw them die, not only soldiers but innocent bystanders. I still dream of them. Fortunately it doesn’t happen often now, because the dreams are very disturbing.”

“Then what is it that you’re afraid to tell me, Tom?”

“Nikola, I seem to be surrounded by an electric field when I travel in time. I know little about it, and for that matter it’s never been measured. I know it affects a compass. The compass needle swings around and never settles while I’m inside the field, even though the compass was working perfectly moments before and it starts working as soon as the electric field has dissipated.”

“That would fit, Tom. You are surrounded by electricity, you move within a magnetic field, or perhaps you experience the Earth’s magnetic field moving around you. Of course you are going to be displaced.

“The angle of such movement is extremely important, Tom. The equations cannot be solved precisely unless I know your electric field’s relationship to the Earth’s magnetic field when you moved. How strong is this electric field you mention? Is it stronger when you travel, or weaker? The magnetic field of the Earth varies in strength over the short term, but the variance is not great. I confirmed that with my experiments in Colorado, so I believe we can exclude it from our calculations.”

“Nikola, the field varies in size and also in strength. It’s stronger when it’s small, weaker when larger. I had no idea this would be important.”

“You’re describing an inverse relationship. Normally that wouldn’t be of great importance, since the variations would tend to cancel, giving the electrical field an absolute value that could be used to predict its relationship to the Earth’s magnetic field. This electric field you mention; you said it hadn’t been measured. Are there others like it?”

“Yes; not many, but there are a few.”

“And you don’t know how strong those others are?”

“Nikola, I can only tell you that they have similar effects. I can’t say they’re the same.” T thought about it. His own field was based on the size of his body, forming near his skin, then expanding under his control. But Ray was larger and Shezzie was smaller, so probably the bubbles they formed were also different. For that matter, Libby was the smallest of all of them. “My best guess is that they’re probably not the same.”

“So we cannot draw an exact parallel based on what you experienced?”

“I guess not, Nikola. That’s disappointing.”

“Why, Tom? You need only repeat your experiment, controlling the number of variables and ensuring that only one variable changes for the duration of each trial. I do that, and for that matter every reputable scientist does. Repeat the experiment, control as many variables as possible, and take careful notes. Precise measurements are also important. I have found it necessary to invent my own instruments when no others were available to measure my devices with sufficient accuracy.”

“That’s not the problem, Nikola. My trip back in time was not part of an experiment. I did it only because a young girl vanished. I believe she has also gone back in time by accident. That’s why I took notes, I hoped to understand what happened to her. I know little about being displaced in time, but she knows even less than I do. I hope to find her and return her to
her home.”

“Oh, my. That’s very unfortunate, Tom. Did you not warn her before she undertook such a dangerous act?”

“I tried. Have you ever tried to tell a teenager not to do something?”

#

Ray woke up early and stirred the fire, adding small sticks until it was going well. Libby woke up soon after and huddled next to him, hands outstretched to the fire.

“I’m hungry, Ray. Was the jerky all the food you had?”

“All I had with me, Libby. I have two other camps back in New Mexico and the rest of my food is there, but I don’t think I can find it. I’ve gone back in time since I put the food there.”

“New Mexico? How far is that from here?”

“It’s not so much the distance, Libby, it’s time. It’s going to take a few hours to get there. You’ll just have to wait.”

“Maybe we can catch a rabbit or something? I know how to broil a rabbit, but I don’t have a knife or anything to cook with. Sarah’s people had pots and things. They also cooked on flat rocks that they heated by building a fire on the top. That took a long time, though.”

“Who is Sarah?”

“She’s a friend, a Paiute.”

“You lived with Indians, Libby?”

“Well, sure. I didn’t know anyone there and Sarah’s people were good to me. She taught me a lot.”

“Libby, you’re going to be tempted to tell your friends about this. You can’t. If anyone finds out you traveled in time, they’ll think you’re crazy. If they believe you, the government will also want to know how you did it. So will a lot of other people. That knowledge could be worth a lot and people will stop at nothing if they think you know some way they can make money.”

“It’s like the other things we do, right? I can’t tell them about starting fires or comming with you and my grandfather.”

“You’ve got it. It’s a secret, and if you ever feel you’ve got to talk to someone, comm me.”

“Okay, Ray. Shouldn’t we get started to where your camp is? Either that or hunt down a rabbit. Can we kill a deer, Ray?”

“No deer. That’s more meat than we need, so it would be wasted. If we spot a rabbit, sure. But we’re going to be moving fast. No teleporting until after we get there, though. We’ll levitate inside our bubbles just like we did when you practiced tumbling. Except this time, we’ll move as fast as we can. We’ll drink from the spring and then we’ll be on our way.”

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