Prologue
Sunday, November 12, 2000
3:23 A.M.
Lake of the Pines, California
It seemed like everyone had shown up to see the testing of the new time machine. The car, a silver 1997 Ford Thunderbird boasting the vanity TIMELESS, had been selected by Jules, who, even at the age of thirteen, was a car fanatic. Doc assumed it had something to do with the fact that they were common place objects not present when he was growing up, in the Nineteenth Century.
With Doc was Sam Powell, the twenty-one year-old who had developed his own time machine. The Iowan was now employed at Doc's new company, EBE, officially as Doc's personal assistant, but unofficially as a co-inventor.
Doc's company had been founded in 1987, when he first introduced his modified presto logs (and before he settled full-time in the "present"), and its main purpose was to market his inventions. Lately, however, it had been "taken over" by nuclear scientists working on forced fission.
Forced fission, or forced decay, was the process by which nuclear fuel was burned without producing nuclear waste, only lead. Naturally, nuclear power plants were very interested in the process, and the technology was now EBE's major product. In the two years since Doc first introduced the process (originally developed for the DeLorean's nuclear reactor, a fact unknown to the public), the company had become a major concern and Doc's net worth had exploded to $10 million.
Doc had left business decisions to the professionals, however, as he and Sam worked full-time on the new time machine. Despite their best efforts, the process took more than a year.
Doc stood next to the time machine and turned to face the small group assembled to witness the first test: Clara, Jules, Verne, Marty, and Sam's friend Cindy.
Clara, a stay-at-home mom, was currently homeschooling their children: Jules, 13, and Verne, 12. However, both she and Doc now wanted them to attend public high school, and in the next week they would be checking out Hill Valley's two high schools—Hill Valley High and Gale High—in preparation for Jules to attend one of them the next fall.
Jennifer had hoped to be there, but decided to stay home and watch her and Marty's children: Marlene, who was four days past four years old, and James Emmett, who was two.
Doc smiled as he remembered what Marty said when he learned of Marty's son's name.
"There's no way in hell I'm naming him 'Marty Junior'," Marty had said.
"Why?" Doc had asked. "I appreciate the gesture with his middle name, but I'm curious."
"Because I think it sounds so egotistical when people name their kids after themselves. I guess my other self was okay with it because Jennifer was, but, hey, you know, 'Jim' sounds like 'Jen' when you shout it across the house. So, what the hell, our kids each have names that sound like ours."
Marty himself was still a musician, but his "day job," as it were, was as a DJ at the local AM radio station, KKHV. Lately, he had become something of a political commentator, as callers were all discussing the recent tied presidential election. As a Gore supporter in mostly Republican Hill Valley, Marty was, to his surprise, something of a shock jock, now.
Cindy had almost missed the occasion. A student at Sacramento State University, she was currently pursuing a journalism degree. In the end, she decided that the test was something she'd rather not miss, even if it meant being up at 3:00 A.M.
Doc glanced over at Sam Powell, to his right. Sam was holding a laptop, wired to the Thunderbird. The laptop would monitor the time machine's systems as they worked. Sam nodded at Doc.
"Good morning!" Doc said to everyone. "We all know we're here to witness the testing of Time Machine Number Four. Sam and I are going to take the machine ahead on a one minute jump, then ahead to 2030 for a hover conversion." The Mr. Fusion, also from 2030, had been delivered by the train and was already installed.
The Thunderbird looked less like a time machine and more like the car it had been; indeed, Marty had asked if Doc was sure it was completed. The special roll bars on the sides (called "flux bands") were there, but the vents in the rear were so small they were easy to miss. Doc explained that this was due to the Mr. Fusion reactor, which generated less heat than the DeLorean's plutonium reactor and the train's steam engine.
The inside of the Thunderbird was less cramped than the DeLorean, the train, or Sam's Volkswagen, thanks in large part to the use of future technology. It looked, in fact, not much different than a normal Thunderbird on the inside, as well.
The main control was a five inch LCD screen set into the dash, beneath the radio. The screen (actually a tablet computer) was from 2030 and had been programmed by Verne's future self, an inventor and world renowned computer genius. The display screen was voice controlled, and could display maps and other information, in addition to the current, destination, and last departed times. In addition to that, it could display all times the time machine had visited if asked.
It was also controlled by thumbprint locks, so that only authorized individuals could use the time machine. At the moment, Doc, Sam, Clara, Marty, Jennifer, and Cindy were all cleared to run the time machine.
Doc sat in the driver's seat and pressed his thumb to the screen. After a second, the screen displayed the phrase "Welcome, Emmett" in an elaborate, cursive font.
Doc said to the computer, "Time circuits on. Test mode, plus one minute, please."
The screen now displayed the destination time as "TEST".
Doc nodded and turned to Sam, "Let's get going."
Sam and Doc drove the machine to one end of the test track. They quickly accelerated to eighty-eight and disappeared in a flash of light. A tense minute later, the machine reappeared. It pulled to a stop in front of the group.
Doc rolled down the window, "Everything worked perfectly!"
Marty applauded, then stopped when the others looked at him strangely.
"Hey, I thought it called for that," he grinned.
Doc laughed, "We'll be back in a minute."
The machine disappeared again. When it reappeared, it was hovering, and it landed with a bump.
"Are you all right?" Clara asked when Doc emerged from the car.
"Fine, fine," Doc said, "We've been gone two days."
"Two days?" Cindy asked.
Doc nodded, "It's hard to find a hover converter in 2030, as it turns out. Sam, does the systems check look okay?"
Sam was looking at his laptop and gave thumbs up.
Doc smiled, "Then I hereby pronounce Time Machine Number Four a success!"
"Now what?" Jules asked.
"Nothing, for the moment," Doc said. Jules and Verne groaned, but Doc continued, "Sam and I will be testing another device that requires the time machine, in a few days. If that's successful, we may go on a vacation somewhere. Uh, some-when."
Jules shrugged.
Doc clapped his hands, "So, that's it for now!"
And with that, everyone said their goodbyes and went home.
The whole time, they didn't know that they were being watched.