Impossible Journey, A Tale of Times and Truth

"O.K., wise guy, show us how the thing works!"

The man walks slowly over to the engine, with Daniel and Kerry right behind him. Reaching into his pocket again, he pulls out a small, square metal box with plugs at one end. He searches the engine for a moment, and, locating a certain place where there are sockets, he plugs the box in and stands aside. "O.K., now for the coordinates." He rushes to the coordinates, followed by Daniel, and makes a few adjustments, with Daniel looking on. "Well, Gentlemen, that’s all there is to it. We’re on our way! Of course, I can’t guarantee how far back we’ll go. It would have been further if it had been installed before take-off. But anyway, it should take us back a considerable distance."

************

They ride in silence. The minutes pass. Finally, Walt speaks: "Since you are going to be with us, we might as well call you by your name. We didn’t catch it over there."

"Alex," the man replies. "My name is Alex."

The rest of the journey is relatively uneventful. They speak idly of the differences between their times.

They try to contact home base, but get nowhere. "I guess in-flight communication is impossible."

"We'd better try when we land."

The spring of the indicator comes off again, and Kerry tries to put it back on. While he is working, suddenly the ship lands.

"Well, let’s see where we are."

As they start to leave the ship, Alex pulls the box from the engine and puts it in his pocket again. "In case you get any ideas--"

************

Again they have landed in a field of grass. Just ahead of them they see an open square, supported by pillars. In the center, there is a man carving a statue from stone. He seems to be the only person around, although in the distance, they can see a beautiful city.

"This seems strange. Wonder who he is."

"Let’s go and find out, shall we?"

The man is hard at his work and at first doesn’t pay attention. Suddenly, he looks up, startled.

As they walk toward him, they talk:

"Must be a famous sculptor."

"I wonder who."

"Could be Michael Angelo."

"Nah, I’ll bet its Leonardo Da Vinci."

Upon hearing his name, the sculptor looks up again. "How do you know my name?"

"Just a lucky guess. So then, this must be fourteen hundred and something."

"1490 to be exact. But anybody knows that."