1.3.0 A Step Forward for a Step Back

 

Jessup, MD

Ansem Weathers signed off on the deal and they drove his truck away. He stood on his front lawn and took a deep breath. After they drove it off, he found that Rebecca had wandered over behind him. Curious of what was happening to her neighbor she asked, “Where are they taking your truck, Mr. Weathers?”

“I sold it.” He said without a hitch.

“And please,” he continued, now turned towards her, “call me Ansem.”

“What are you going to do now…Ansem..?”

“I bought my own warehouse in Montana, the largest shipping and receiving hub in the entire country.”

“Sounds…expensive…” Rebecca tried to wrap her mind around it.

“Ought to….cost me about fifty million dollars.”

Rebecca’s jaw dropped so low it almost hit the grass. “Ansem I had no idea you were rich!”

“I’m not rich. I’m just a good saver.”

“How much have you saved up?”

“Since…”

“I don’t know… two-thousand-five?”

“Close to a hundred million dollars.”

“Oh my god! You’re taking me out to dinner,” Rebecca demanded as she punched his chest playfully.       

What?

Ansem started following her to the car. Rebecca turned around and laughed, “Not right now, I’m going to work. But how about Saturday at eight?”

“Okay.”

“Good-bye, Mr. Rockefeller.”

“Oh…you can just call me- oh…right...bye.”

Rebecca shook her head, still giggling as she got in her car and drove off. Ansem stood in her front yard. He jumped up and down. Did he just? Was that? Did he really get a date for Saturday night with Rebecca, the love of his life? All he needed was a car. He had five days and millions of dollars to get a car before Saturday.

    
       

New York, NY

           

Manhattan Tech looked closed for the night. One window stayed lit. Samuel did not leave his laboratory for some time. His family went on without him. They were very much used to this by now. Both they and he knew he was on the verge of one of his breakthroughs. No intern or grad student could help him now. His co-workers had long given up on Dr. Chase’s theories. If it wasn’t for his small steps and logical backing Samuel would have been kicked out of the scientific community years ago. As he became world-renown for his proofs in nuclear physics out of school, Samuel’s tastes evolved and he became fixated on theoretical physics. And overnight he went from a scientist handling uranium to a professor pushing term papers. 

He never lost his knack for the field though. Dr. Chase only agreed to come to Tech because they were the only ones who would accommodate his demand for a lab. Although most of his work was done on his chalkboard, every so often the next step in his theories would call for a lab procedure or field experiment. The first time Samuel sat in his laboratory he got this feeling. He knew this would be the place where he makes history. 

Since then, he has faced much ridicule in the science community for his beliefs in tachyons and time travel. Everyone considered the notions, but no one ever tried to prove it. That’s just career suicide. Once Samuel took up this mission he knew he would have to sacrifice certain things, and so he did. He knew the last of them would be his integrity. Now that time was at hand and Samuel was pinched by his lurking failures to come up with a suitable formula. 

Samuel sat up in his seat. He stared down at his notes. It was an empty stare. Most of the equipment was off in the laboratory. He sat as his cluttered desk with the only light on over him and the chalkboard. The chalk was almost spent as most of it was on the board already in equation form. Samuel reached into his suit jacket, from the inner breast pocket he pulled out a golden pocket watch. Samuel clicked it open and admired it; a gift from his wife. 

Sam knew tachyons were integral in the equation but he could not find a way to apply them without having the same effect as every other scientist who tested them. Samuel concentrated on one of his best tools, his ability to see outside of the box. Perhaps there was a second piece to this puzzle that he had never considered. What if the tachyons are nothing but a secondary effect? 

Samuel got up from his desk and grabbed the chalk. He cleared some space with his sleeve and drew a circle. He wrote “tachyons” inside the circle then stepped back. He used his sleeve again to erase “tachyons” from the inside of the circle. Samuel then wrote “tachyons” along the outside of the circle. That was it. He stepped back again and wondered what was to go inside the circle…

 to be continued...

1.2.0 Love and Tachyons

Jessup, MD

It was time for Ansem's daily routine of crossing paths with Rebecca as he got home from work and she was leaving for her shift at the hospital. 

“Hi, Mr. Weathers.” 

Christ, she called him mister. If he only just opened his mouth and talked to her she would find that he was not that much older than her. The beard throws people off. Every time he tried to talk his voice would drop out, but he went for it anyway, “Hi, Reb…” his words dissipated into the air as he tried to pick it back up with a wave, “...becca.” Ansem smiled like an awkward idiot and was unsure if she even heard him; another squandered moment.

He walked into his house and made himself dinner. Later Rebecca would get home at four in the morning. The only light that was still on in Ansem’s house was coming from the basement window. Rebecca was so tired she thought little of it. The next day Ansem finished his truck route to the pharmacies and sporting goods stores and looked forward to his daily moment with Rebecca. All the way home he practiced different ways to say hello, “Hi Rebecca!” “ Great Day today!”  “Hey neighbor!” “Same shit, different day!”  That last one might leave too much of an impression. But maybe that’s exactly what he needed to do.

When Ansem got home and parked his enormous truck out on the street instead of in his drive, as he was known to do, he saw Rebecca talking to someone else. It was the mailman. But it was too late for him to still be making his rounds. This could only mean one thing... He was there on a personal call. Ansem walked down the stone path to his front door facing them the entire way. It wasn’t so bad, the awkwardness was cut with a brown bag of groceries he was holding, blocking any potential eye-contact. He thought about waving but that seemed silly.

Ansem rushed into his house and closed the door. When he turned his head to have a look out the window, he tripped on the ottoman and spilled his groceries all over the floor. The carton of milk broke open. It was a mess. Ansem got up and screamed. He pulled the fireplace spike out and slammed it into the ottoman, cutting holes in it, carving out the stuffing. Ansem got all his pent up frustration out. He briefly fantasized about them hearing him and coming over. Ansem’s paranoia then got the best of him and he immediately calmed down, cleaned the mess, and fixed the ottoman before hiding down in his basement for the rest of the night.

New York, NY

Samuel was spending days on end at his campus laboratory. He kept telling Vanessa that he was on the verge of a breakthrough that could save his career. He was not able to give up this theory. They were threatening to take away his grants and tenure. Samuel didn't want to go home because he feared they would change the locks on him.

“If I can just make the tachyon converter work…” Samuel muttered to himself in front of the chalkboard. It was almost two in the morning. He was staring through over-tired eyes and blotchy glasses. Only one thing could break him from this spell... Vanessa walked into the office. “You can make it work tomorrow, honey. Let’s go home.” She brought his jacket over and covered him with it.

“Oh, Vanessa, I think I screwed up bad this time.” The bourbon was heavy on his breath. The empty bottle went unnoticed on the floor between the couch and the wall.

Vanessa Chase drove her husband home and he did not lose his job, for the time being. Thankfully, nobody saw her drag his drunk-ass out of there. The next day Samuel woke up and saw his last dream echoing in his mind. It looked like the formula to the tachyon converter, but then it became a silver box with an indented curve riding down both sides of it to a point, at the point there was an opening that light was pouring out of...

Every time the light broke his vision the feeling remained the same. This was the tachyon converter. Vanessa was right; he did find it the next day. What they both did not know, what they could not know, is that time travel required more than just particles that travel backwards through time. Samuel would have to find that out the hard way in the days to come. 

to be continued...