Impossible Journey, A Tale of Times and Truth

"You mentioned two drawbacks. What’s the other one?"

"Nothing that' should concern you, really. Just that there is no guarantee that whoever goes will make it back to the present time."

Mark leans forward intently on his chair. "And you are willing to take that risk?" His eyes scan the group.

All nod and some say verbally "We are!"

He sits back and puffs his cigar once more. "Well, I see you are truly serious about this. But tell me, exactly how does this time travel work? I’m not too familiar with it."

"Well, to move through time, you need three things: a high-speed revolving room with a high ratio of movement, a strong magnetic field with high density flux lines and an alternating electrical energy field of resonant frequency equal to that of the person or object which is to move through time. Does this have you entirely confused?"

"Not entirely. I can understand some of what you’re saying from my limited knowledge of physics." Mark reaches for his brandy snuffer and takes another sip. "I suppose it does sound feasible enough. But how do you know exactly where and when the scene that you read to me took place? And how can you arrange to arrive there precisely?"

John has also been sipping from his glass and now places it back on the table. "Of course no one knows the exact time or location of the Garden of Eden, but we have enough information about the time and location and have built into our plan enough margin of error in regard to time and location that we can be reasonably assured of success. Of course, we will have to be especially careful in making the calculations and setting the coordinates at the next to the last stop. But, to give you more information without going into the technical end of it--"

Daniel interrupts "Recent archeological finds tell us that the location of Eden was somewhere in the present day country of Armenia, and the time was approximately 6000 years ago."

Mark now has a puzzled look on his face as he tries to re-light his cigar. "But I can't see how you can be assured of arriving close enough to the spot to--"

John raises his finger as if making a point. "Without going into a lot of detailed scientific explanation, we shall have to calculate the rotation of the earth in relation to the location of the time cylinder. Then we can attempt, by varying the intensity of the horizontal thrust and carefully setting the coordinates, to direct the location of each backward jump so that each one will bring us closer, not only in time, but in location as well, to our desired destination."

"This would have to be done quite carefully at each landing point," interjects Walt, "with an eye to earthquakes or other natural phenomenon which may be present."

"Walt and Will shall work together on the calculations." adds John.

"Well!" Having managed to re-light the cigar, Mark takes a big puff and slowly blows out the smoke. "Well, it certainly seems as if you’ve thought of everything."

"We tried to."

There is a pause--a moment of intense silence, which seems like an eternity. Mark Lewis slowly puffs out more smoke, while the others sit breathlessly on the edge of their seats.