Impossible Journey, A Tale of Times and Truth

...And the woman took the fruit of the tree and gave also unto her husband and they ate."

As Daniel translates, John notices the light of recognition dawning on the faces of the others.

"Ah yes, affirms Walt. I remember that. It's part of the E document, I believe."

"It’s from the Torah." asserts Kerry.

"Ah! We have some sort of story like that in our ancient Japanese literature,” says Will.

"Chinese likewise," agrees David.

"But, the point?!" objects Walt.

John smiles broadly. "The point, my friends, is simply this: What do you think can be done about the situation?”

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, do you think, in the light of our present knowledge, that we could possibly do anything to change the situation?"

There is a brief moment of silence, and then David speaks

"Well, in the light of our present knowledge of time travel, I suppose we could possibly attempt to go back to that time and warn the people involved, so they never make the fatal mistake. And then, everything would be different."

"Exactly!" exclaims John.

"But, protests Daniel, "time travel has not been fully proven as yet—-that is, it hasn’t been tested."

"Perhaps," suggests John, "because there hasn’t been enough of a motive, yet."

"But," objects Walt, "even if it is possible to go back in time, we don’t know how far back we could go, or even if we could control our landing point. Suppose we land just after this fall you read about, and can’t go back to the time before it."

"My friends," affirms John, "The question of controlling the local destination of time leaps is what I’ve been working on for the past five years; and I believe I’ve finally gotten it pretty well figured out. You simply vary the intensity of the horizontal thrust in accordance with the calculated rotation of the earth in relation to the time platform. The temporal locator works pretty much the same way. But, so far, with our present thrust capabilities, it seems it would only be possible to go back 200 years more or less in one leap."

"So," observes Will, "we’d have to go back in leaps of 200 years each, and, at the next to last jump, we’d make the calculations, and set the coordinates in order to arrive at our exact destination point."

"Exactly! And with the right calculations and the right settings, the time and location could be controlled within a few days and a few feet. By setting the dial enough ahead of our desired time goal, we’d give ourselves a good margin of error."

"Sounds like you’ve really thought this thing through.” observes Walt.

"I certainly have. I’ve been waiting for this meeting to present this idea."

"But, even if we test it and we find it works," asserts Kerry, "if we were to send someone back in time, there’s a good possibility they might not return. We should all be aware of that."

"The question is, my friends," John’s voice rings out loud and clear, "whether we see the goal as being worth the risk. Think of it, my friends! Think of being able to change the course of world history--being able to eliminate all sickness, disease and evil--to make it as though it never happened."

"Do you really think we could do it?"

Again, John’s voice is strong and assertive. "If there is a chance that it can be done, wouldn’t it be worth trying?"