Chapter One
I'm a little worried about my Father of late. He's been isolating himself more than usual, rarely coming out of his library. Now he has called my sister and me back for a dinner tonight, which is not usual, but his overall demeanor feels off.
My father, Algernon MacGeety, is a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Minnesota (MIFA) and has always been offbeat. Having gained some international renown at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he announced out of nowhere to my sister and me that we were moving to Minnesota. Our mother had recently died of ovarian cancer just before the move so we assumed he just wanted to get away from memories of her. So the history of sudden irrational acts isn't foreign to him. They say geniuses are crazy and I wouldn't argue at all with that. My sister Gerty and I came home from our studies in Duluth together and spent the whole drive theorizing what he is up to. Is it one of his crack-pot inventions? Is it that he is moving again? It could be everything under the sun with him. Gerty and I have always been close, aside from the usual sibling annoyances. So we shall endure whatever together no matter what the surprise is.
We arrive at my father's house in Lake Elmo. It sits on a few acres not far from the local airport. We call as our voices echo around the empty rooms. The lots are spaced out generously here so he has quite a lot of privacy here, which allows his eccentrics to reach beyond their potential. He has a large work shed that is closer to his real home since he spends hours doing work. Despite the good size of his home, he only requires a place to sleep.
We went outside and were on our way to his workshed when the jolly old fellow appeared. I've never known my father to wear anything other than a suit, bowtie, rimless spectacles, and a Scottish-styled newsboy cap, tonight was no different. "My lovelies, so nice that you could make it." He greeted us in his thick Scottish accent. We share a group embrace, as it has been a couple of months since we've last seen him. "I see you've locked yourself away in the shed as always." I razz him. He just chuckles and we all head into the house.
Whatever he has asked us back for must be special for he dusted off all of mom's fanciest dinner set. The old man even seems to have cooked the lasagna himself. The takeout places are in despair tonight.
He fills some glasses with white wine and says, "How about a toast?" And gestures for us to grab one of the glasses.
"I'm only 20, and Banner is 19." Gerty rebukes. I wasn't going to mention it for I'll accept such charity when I can.
"Nonsense, my parents let us sip alcohol since I was a lad and it never hurt us. We aren't getting drunk, we are celebrating." He defends.
"What are we celebrating?" I ask.
"We're celebrating a great many things my boy, but first, let's have a toast to your late, and truly missed mother." As emotion is detectible in his voice. We all raise a glass to that and drink. "Are we celebrating something to do with mom?" Gerty, now tinged with a bit of attitude. As we all miss my mother, Gerty has been extra sensitive about it by comparison.
"No, not directly, but all occasions are the right occasion to honor her memory." He's looking in Gerty's direction in sincere sympathy.
"Then why are we here?" I try to redirect back.
"All those years of me always working and time spent away from the both of you, they were because of today. Time," He pauses, "The time I missed out of in your lives, all the sports and school activities, all those things are lost. Now, time is our ally, and I can think of no one whom I'd like to spend my dying days with." He morbidly exalts.
"You're not, I mean, You're not dying are you?" Gerty stumbles out the words.
"No! I'm sorry to be so mysterious and strange. I will explain all the details in good time, but first can't I enjoy a nice meal with my two favorite people?" Shutting down further inquiries for now.
After a very satisfying meal and strawberry rhubarb for dessert, my father directs us back to his workshed eagerly. We move to a part of the workshed I've been to a million times and it hasn't grown more interesting this trip. We're all standing by the same dusty old rug that has been there since I can remember, and My father directs our attention to it.
"This old rug sitting in the middle of the shed all these years and nobody's even suspected." He casually states.
"Suspected what?" Gerty's annoyed. "Suspected that it hides my secret. Not even you two seem to know about it, and that's a good thing." Father looks at us with a softened smile. "Secret! What secret could you have? Dad, you don't have a dead body hidden somewhere?" I ask concerned.
"No, nothing like that Son. This secret is not just my secret as there have been others in the care of it. I'm just the one who put all the pegs into place so to speak. Enough talk and let me show you." He gestures for us to move back a little. He walks to the picture he keeps of our mother on the wall and raises the picture frame as so he can reach a hidden switch of some kind. The sound of something opening echoes through the room but I can't see what has opened. He grabs the rug and slides over to reveal a hidden entrance on the floor. Two doors of some type have swung downward and some stairs leading further below can be seen now.
"What on Earth have you got going on with that? You got some sort of mad science experiment?" I spit out in a rapid fire.
"Yes, a mad experiment is probably the right term. Come down with me and see for yourself." He says rather calmly.
We start down the stairs as he lights our way with a flashlight. They quickly end as there seems to be a sturdy metal door blocking the way. He tells me to slide the rug to cover the whole and closed the two doors essentially trapping us in. My father enters a code on a device and the door slides open. He walks a little out of our sight as we wait by the entrance to whatever is down here. The air is noticeably stale. All of a sudden the light comes slowly on as a large room is revealed. The surprises are not ending tonight.
As my sister and walk into the large room, we both immediately stutter back as we see a very large object taking up most of the space. Overwhelmed by this revelation we both just stare at it.
The room was probably 100 feet in all directions including up. What wasn't a part of the object looked like things you'd see in an auto shop, as well as what appeared to be a workstation with all kinds of computers. "This is what I've been working on all those days and nights." My father boasts.
"What in the world is it? I mean I've got so many questions." I look over at Gerty, "We've got so many questions." I refine.
"I should expect!" He leaned on the object.
The object was sort of oval and had a shiny metallic exterior. If I had to guess, it was roughly bigger than a large RV. It had what I received to be access panels with different-sized doors all over it, but I couldn't say that's what they were.
As I looked up to the ceiling I started to wonder where this was on the property. Of course, it's directly under the pond, it now occurred to me. The pond was shallow, mucky, and full of mosquitoes in the summer, so we avoided it. All around the pond was a little overgrown so I guess it perfectly never raised our suspicions as to something below.
Now gaining back our senses, "All right, explain." Gerty demanded.
"I call it "The Mysterium". It's a time machine." He says very matter a fact.
"No! You're joking!" I say in disbelief. "If it is a joke, I'm not laughing." Gerty scolds with her arms folded. "Time machine or whatever, how did you afford all of this?"
"That's a complex answer, so let me just bring you up to speed, but I'll have to take you way before my time to do so." He gestures for us to sit on some chairs by the computers. "Get comfortable, we should be safe down here." Gerty and I raise an eyebrow at each other with his "safe" remark. Is he implying some danger is possible?
"I'll have to tell you a story and I'll do my best." He swallows and is probably looking for a place to start.
"We have to go back to the days of Moses." He starts. My sister and I look at each other with rolled eyes. "Yes, I know, but it's where we must start." He addressed "You've heard that Moses went to Mt. Sinai, and there he spoke to God? Hence, he brought down the Ten Commandments. This you know, but he also brought down what was to become known as the Urim and Thummim. These are coded elements that would eventually become a part of the breastplates or Hoshen worn by high priests but what they contained were secret codes given to Moses and shared by him with his brother, Aaron. These were codes to many mysteries in the universe and were said to be a way to talk to God. Aaron started a society that passed down the true form throughout years and millennia."
"They were used for divination and all sorts of rituals but no one unlocked their codes. They became a source of conflict and war, so the true codes inscribed on the breastplate were hidden by this society. They argued amongst themselves as to whether or not these codes should be deciphered, and eventually, they recruited some of the most brilliant minds in history."
"Swearing these geniuses to the society and secrecy, they set to decode this ultimate of knowledge. I was told Pythagoras, Newton, Da Vinci, Einstein, and many famous minds throughout time were recruited. I can believe it based on some of the things I've seen."
"I can't say why they recruited me, but they did when I was still at St. Andrews. It is why we moved to Minnesota. This State provided a unique situation of access, research, and materials. As the secret society provided all the funding and set up the connections. My work at the University of Minnesota as well as partnerships with corporations like 3M afforded me access to unique ideas and materials. It was to mutual benefit as I helped make my partners make several breakthroughs in unrelated issues."
"You see by the time I was recruited countless geniuses had worked on this coded information for generations. I inherited a puzzle with all the pieces, I just had to put them together. So I was standing on the shoulders of greater minds. All I really did was assemble the pieces. The result is in front of you." He let all of that absorb.
"I'm not sure I follow all the details, but essentially, you deciphered secret knowledge from God, and built a time machine from that knowledge?" I surmised.
"Long story short, yes."
"So what are you supposed to do with it now that you built it? How do you know it works?" Asked Gerty "I've already used it, it works, and I intend to use it again. That's why I brought you here tonight, to say goodbye in case I fail."
"I don't understand, fail at what? Why do you have to say goodbye?" Said Gerty, now a little emotional.
"There have been suspicious people following me of late. They could be Government or worse. I can't let it get into others' hands, for even just one person could do tremendous harm. Unspeakable evils could happen, I must go where they cannot find me until I know what to do with it. There's a chance I won't make it back. I should be safe but you never know."
"Blow the thing up, drop it in an ocean, dismantle it and burn your research." Gerty pleaded.
"Stay, we'll help you to destroy it. Just don't leave us." I joined "I built it I suppose to satisfy my ego. My hubris getting the better of me, and it's probably my undoing. I probably brought you here tonight as much to boast to you my lovelies. Like you dear mother, you both are right." He concedes.
Just then, the room was filled with flashing lights.
"What is happening?" I look around.
"It's a proximity alarm. Someone is here." He warns.
We head over with my father to look at a computer screen, and as he accesses the cameras it is plain to see people in tactical gear caring weapons.
"Who's this?" Gerty practically yells.
"Don't know exactly, but the fact that they have weapons we can assume they aren't friends." He heads to the machine and enters some codes on a panel as a door opens. He heads in and it seems he has turned the machine on. He comes back out and tells me to grab all the hard drives pointing to an area. I abridge and bring them all into the Mysterium. Dad told Gerty to help go through his pre-flight list in the cockpit of this strange vessel.
"Kids, we don't have a choice right now, but you're coming with me. We have to slide to keep whomever these people are from getting it. We can always slide back later. Right now we have to blow up my lab and get out of here. I can't leave you for they might use you to get to me. It doesn't matter, just everybody get strapped in and I'll take care of the rest." He ran out to the computer and entered something into it and came rushing back into the pilot seat.
"Just entered a countdown on the bomb that's about to blow this all sky high." He almost excitedly says.
"Bomb?" Gerty stares at him and then shakes her head in disbelief at the circumstances.
"Got to erase as much as I can." He distractedly says as he's hitting all kinds of buttons and moving dials. We feel a tremendous shake to the ship.
"Was that your bomb going off?" Gerty quizzed.
"No, I think they just breached into the lab. We're not waiting to find out." He grabbed the steering and pulled a lever down fast. There were no windows that I could tell, so it was impossible to know what was happening outside but the ship was shaking violently. I was strapped in a chair outside the cockpit, but them talking in the cockpit talking about sensors. I was thrown forward into my strap hard as I could feel us come to a sudden stop. The new sense of sinking quickly followed as I could hear machinery whirring and clunking around the ship. We thrust forward at an upward angle.
Gerty came out of the cockpit and held on to some straps due to the steep angle of the ship. Then Dad appeared behind her.
"Well, my lovelies you just slide through time. We are currently in an ancient lake heading for the surface, luckily this vessel is water-tight." "I can't believe it." Gerty looked stunned. "Where are those men?, Where's our house?"
"Thousands of years in the future, and if I set the timer right, gone. Both are blown up, along with all of the secrets." He sounded remorseful. "So if what you say is true, where in time are we?" I needed to know.
"I didn't have time to think of a good date, so I put in a period of history when this area would be oceans. You see you slide time to the same location, so if you are inside a mountain, the only way to slide through time out of it is to go to when it doesn't exist. Do you get what I mean?" He informed.
"So if were are on top of a building and slide to a time before it was constructed, we won't be on the ground, we'll be in the air where the roof was, but no building?" Gerty tries to clarify.
"Basically." Dad agreed.
We reached the lake shore and we all took a moment to regain ourselves. Dad told us to lie down for a moment while he thinks and folded out some cots from the wall, but I doubt either of us would sleep.
