Beyond This Time: A Time-Travel Suspense Novel (48 page)

The sweat lodge was filled with aromatic sage smoke, and Wendell breathed deeply.

“Drink,” Grandfather ordered, placing the canteen in Wendell’s hands. “Drink now.”

As soon as he’d swallowed a mouthful of the water Wendell’s aching muscles stopped aching. His hungry stomach stopped growling.

Grandfather beat out a soothing rhythm on the rawhide drum, his chanting rising and falling like a long, long highway filled with dips and hills.

Wendell’s vision blurred as the lodge filled with snake-like tendrils of smoke. And he saw
¼

A ship. A misty green ship and
¼
.

CHAPTER ONE

Shenandoah National Park

October 29, 2006

August 15, 1943

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

My dear son David,

After years of preparation, today the U.S. Naval department entered the final stage of the highly secretive Project Rainbow — creating a fleet of
invisible
warships.

The interior of a destroyer had been redesigned to make room for the installation of four extraordinarily strong generators, Tesla coils, and electron tubes. A city’s equivalent of cable roads run throughout the passageways and across the deck.

To simplify, by connecting cable to the generators, Nikola Tesla and I, created a gigantic magnet. Modified Tesla coils oscillators (see the attached schematics)were used to convert the direct current (DC)to an alternating current (AC) which is harmonically increased, in a specific sequence, thus bringing into existence a magnetic field—with enough depth, width, and length, to encompass the entire ship.

Yesterday, I presented a detailed report of the problems Tesla and I encountered during the dry run aboard the
Eldridge
several days earlier. I explained how, in an attempt to determine the effects, on both living organisms and inanimate objects, our scientific team (after off-loading the entire ship’s crew) strategically positioned small animals in cages (made of varying materials) throughout the ship. Then we proceeded to render the destroyer invisible.

When the generators were shut down, the ship once again became visible. However, some animals had
vanished
. Others, because of their condition, did not survive more than a few minutes. Afterwards, we quite adamantly cautioned the military authorities of the potential danger of continuing on schedule with the experiment.

In spite of our warnings, the scheduled August 12th experiment was not cancelled. Those in charge of the project ignored our repeated and quite ardent pleas to delay the operation, allowing us to determine what had happened to the animals— before using human subjects.

The military authorities denied our request, explaining their decision as a simple
window of opportunity
. Another of which, they adamantly reiterated, would not be available for six months.

With the war raging, the military felt any delay would be too costly. Considering the urgency of our military position, on both European and Pacific war fronts, and the alarming loss of men and ships, Tesla and I felt compelled to agree. On another level, the timing of this experiment was crucial, due to the fact that scientists have postulated that the earth’s gravitational field peaks in 23- year cycles—which if true, would occur on August 15, 1943. In light of this, I (and you, in the future) must take advantage of this natural occurrence.

After several sleepless nights, I convinced myself that as long as I maintained absolute control—by remaining on board the
Eldridge
during the test, rather than on the scientific vessel following behind the ship, as I had done previously—I could stop the experiment at the first sign of trouble.  

As the
USS Eldridge
(with a minimal number of men) sailed down the Delaware River into the harbor, all of those aboard both heard and felt the unusual vibrations. The strange humming sound emitted by the four generators grew in intensity and pitch as they approached the higher frequencies.

Routine seaman duties came to a halt as the vibrations became stronger and stronger. My hair stood on end due to the uncommon electrical sensations flowing about us. A few of the younger seamen played with the static discharge, as others looked cautiously about, concern etched on their faces, and a degree of fear in their eyes.

I felt no apprehension, knowing I could put and end to all this at any time.

At the break of dawn, and well out to sea, I switched the generators full on, pulsed in a counter-clockwise rotation.

The ship was almost immediately engulfed within a heavy green fog. The bulkheads became translucent, I could see from one compartment into the adjoining. The deck, however, completely disappeared from beneath my feet. Yet, somehow I remained standing. Although, I could not see the deck, I felt the hard surface beneath me.

Within seconds, there was a brilliant flash of light so intense it momentarily blinded me. I had the painful sensation of my body being propelled outwards, breaking into thousands of fragmented pieces. An intense piercing and paralyzing sensation seemed to fill my entire being. I thought I was dying.

Gradually, the pain and my disorientation subsided. The ship no longer hummed or vibrated, it had become entirely transparent. I found I could easily move through the bulkheads. At this point, I came to the shocking realization that I too had become transparent.

In an attempt to end this madness, I reached through the wall for the generator switch. Like my hand, it had no substance.

Twenty-four hours later the
Eldridge
materialized on its own.

In the wrong location!

Our initial intention had been to move the ship instantaneously in time from one physical linear location(A), Philadelphia, to physical linear location(B), the Norfolk shipyard. We accomplished the first goal: Moving unseen from A to B. However, I believe that the 23-year global magnetic surge sent us from August 15, 1943, from our point of origin in the Atlantic Ocean, to an unfamiliar location — ON LAND! As well as a different year from which we began.

Each time we obtain solid form, we attempt to conduct a survey of the damage and initiate repairs. One generator has been destroyed by fire, and the electron tubes continue to explode because of the electrical overload. With our loss of power, we are unstable, and totally out of control.

Periodically, we materialize, generally for less than seven minutes, then once again become transparent, engulfed in the green fog. Occasionally, one of the crew is able to identify our location, or we can see evidence of the year. However, most of these brief stops are in an unknown place and time. We are bouncing around the earth’s magnetic field like a rock skipping across a pond.

To us, time has no meaning. We shift from materialization to materialization with no sense of the passage of time.

I have heard rumors that on occasion we have “taken on” passengers, and later on, a few of these visitors have been able to get off the ship. This I have not been able to confirm. For unknown reasons, unlike our “visitors”, the original crew members have so far been unable to leave the ship. Another field, or barrier of some sort, appears to prevent this. I have been working on the problem, and I am close to a solution.

To understand how we are traveling, you must focus on the earth’s magnetic lines of force (diagram 124). Pay close attention to how the grid lines of force and fluxes intersect with each other, both horizontally and vertically. (See the attached graph) We are being pulled along these lines, hop scotching through the time continuum.

It is the year 1983, (I know this because I can see a large Happy New Year banner displayed on the side of a boat). I believe you will be able to locate our future locations in advance by closely monitoring the earth’s gravitational and magnetic changes. This data should allow you to narrow the dates and locations I have provided, and pinpoint our exact materialization place, within a 24 to 36-hour window.

Please understand, the future dates and geographical locations listed below are only approximate, since I am still conducting research. (Note: In
my
world, these reappearances will not be in the chronological order listed, as we are randomly jumping. For example, we may jump from 1966 to 2006 and so on. But, the materializations
will
follow in the proper sequence order in your world)

1966         Shenandoah National Park

1983         Colorado River

1987         Lake Mead, Nevada

1992         Idaho

1996         UNKNOWN

1997         Michigan

1999         Death Valley, California

2002         Virginia

2006         Shenandoah National Park

2006         New Mexico

My intentions are to toss this letter from the ship today, with the hope it will be passed on to my son, David Roger Shaw. With luck, he will be able to reach those individuals who are now involved with the recovery of those lost in the Eldridge Project.

Dr. Roger Shaw

Jewel Shaw Ph.D. finished reading Roger Shaw’s letter aloud, then carefully replaced the letter in the yellowed envelope before looking up. The four members of her team remained silent. Two stared at the worn carpet in the Sky View Lodge room; one studied the slow-moving ceiling fan, only Eric Linden met her gaze.

Ruthe Nantan, William Ramp, and Steven Hill had been selected from the dozens of physics, mathematics and computer science doctoral candidates and assistant professors from the finest universities. Eric Linden had come to her team through a different route, but was well qualified for the job.

Each of these individuals played an integral role in her project. Until this point, they had been given only the goals of Jewel’s experiment, But, now that they knew part of what lay at the heart of the matter, she waited to see how they would respond.

Ruthe Nantan shifted her gaze from the revolving fan, to Jewel’s face. “How did you get the letter?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper away from scornful.

Jewel felt her stomach tighten. Although, very fond of the young woman, Ruthe’s headstrong and independent personality had proven to be the most difficult to accommodate. A full-blood Apache from New Mexico, she carried a silent distrust of anyone outside her culture. A brilliant physicist and mathematician, she frequently voiced open disdain of authority—which, until recently, had thankfully
not
included Jewel.

Jewel had often heard complaints that some of the other students found Ruthe aloof. Too preoccupied with her own ambitions and unable, or unwilling, to interact on a personal level. If not for Ruthe’s outstanding work in differential equations and mathematic modeling, she would have been eliminated from the project early on.